(6 votes, average: 4.83 out of 5)I had a conversation with a person who would classify himself as “Progressive” the other day. After about two hours of non-stop argument, the conversation ended and my head began to ache. Ever since then I’ve been trying to understand the logic of the “modern day progressive” and all it’s done is make my head hurt worse. Let me tell you why…
Every single talking point is manufactured. The reason I know this is because I hear the same nonsense being spewed from the corner of every mouth belonging to a self proclaimed “progressive.” With absolutely no variation in sentence structure, even the manner in which words are enunciated remains identical. “This recession is eight years of Bush rule!!”, “The GOP and the Blue dogs are in bed with Wall Street!!”, “Republicans hate that a black person is the president…”, etc.
It seems progressives are the good guys, standing on the side of the “little guy,” and the “helpless.” Wall Street is evil, oil companies are evil, and if you insist that the government balance its checkbook and live within its means, then you are a racist. That about summed up our conversation.
Arguing with a person who has the same IQ as a toaster is hardly something worth writing about, and normally I wouldn’t bother. But this isn’t the first time I’ve had this conversation. In fact, I’ve had this exact same conversation with more people than I can count in the last year. Each time the same talking points were used over and over, never varying from person to person. It’s as if they all share the same brain. How could anyone take a person seriously when everything they say is just regurgitated, irrational blather from Keith Olbermann?
Progressives argued vehemently that “Bush’s” war was a horridly evil and destructive thing (something I agree with), yet they will barley gasp a whimper to the fact that President Obama renewed the Patriot act, expanded the war on terror, and added thirty thousand more troops to the war in Afghanistan. Is Gitmo closed yet? Didn’t think so….
Progressives consistently argue that Bush only cared about bailing out his bankster buddies and increasing corporate profits (again I agree). Yet it’s conveniently ignored that a democratic congress (including our current President) voted to pass the bailout. It’s also ignored that the Secretary of the Treasury, “Turbo Tax” Tim Geihtner (appointed by President Obama) orchestrated the fire sale of Bear Sterns, and that the Obama administration is literally infested with people who have ties to Goldmann Sachs. A partial list of those personalities includes..
This list could go on for quite some time but ultimately it would end with the President himself, who received more donations from Goldman Sachs than from any other entity, for both his senate race and his presidential race. And yet, we are led to believe that progressive’s are “anti” corporatism? You really think all those wall street insiders in Obama’s cabinet are not assisting the president with his “economic policy?” What did my adversary say? “Well, Bush had corporate influences also.”……. I guess that makes it okay.
Progressives argue- at length- that the free market caused the financial meltdown. They frequently bring up Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, not realizing that they are Government created institutions. My latest foe did not. Instead he referred to the Federal Reserve (surprisingly)… no not in the way you are thinking. He said the “FED set the interest rate low and the free market couldn’t handle it.” I explained how no market is free when it can’t decide on its own what the price of money is, and proceeded to explain how the FED distorts markets by using interest rates to encourage bad investments.
After giving a long spiel on why government laws are needed to bust up monopolies and keep competition vibrant in the market, the self described “progressive” said, “The FED is a private bank, so why do you care what they do?” I explained that Congress delegated its responsibility to coin money to the FED and in doing so, created a government enforced monopoly on the use currency and the level of interest rates. “Those Anti-trust laws obviously aren’t working too well,” I said.
Later, we got on the topic of a “living wage”. I was making the case for the abolition of all forms of taxation, and how this would create prosperity for individuals and families looking desperately for extra income, especially now with the current state of the economy. His response was, “If you don’t have enough money to by food after you pay taxes, then you have an income problem, not a taxation problem.” I’ve heard that one before as it’s one of the more popular retorts used by people parroting the progressive party line. He went on to tell me that without taxes, there would be no government and without the government, everything would fall apart- schools would shutdown, the elderly would starve, roads would instantly crumble, and we’d be living in a nightmare similar to Somalia, which he said is “the endgame of libertarianism.” I replied, “By that logic North Korea is the endgame of government regulations.” He gave me a confused look and argued that as long as “really smart people” are in charge, things like dictatorships don’t happen.
Our conversation ended there. Mr. Progressive had to catch a ride on public mass transit, which incidentally, is also operated by a private corporation that by law has no competition and receives tax dollars to fund its operation, providing yet another example of a government-enforced monopoly. That fact didn’t seem to bother him at all, which surprised me given all his “anti-corporate” blather earlier.
Since this discussion, I’ve tried to understand the logic behind the Progressive Ideology and I believe that I’m making … “progress”…
It appears that Progressives have an almost unshakable faith in the party they support. It’s easily observed when a progressive justifies the actions of the current President by pointing out that the former president “did it too”.
- It’s OK that Obama extended the Patriot Act; Bush created it. It’s fine when progressives spy us.
- It’s OK that Obama instituted a “surge” in Afghanistan; Bush is the one that started the war. When Conservatives fight wars it’s for oil pipelines and no-bid contracts. When progressives fight the exact same war, it’s for the safety of all humanity.
- George Bush bailed out Wall St. to save his billionaire buddies; Obama did literally the exact same thing and voted for the original bailout to “save the middle class”.
- Health care is a god-given right, so it’s fine that people will be forced to purchase insurance from a government approved, corporate provider. Corporatism is fine when Progressives are deciding who gets the subsidy. Health care for all will build a better world. Besides, Bush did the same thing with defense contractors.
- Who cares if Obama and the progressive Congress raise the debt ceiling and stack trillions upon trillions of dollars on top of the federal deficit? George Bush created the majority of the deficit, and Ronald Regan is the godfather of deficit spending.
- It’s OK that soldiers continue to die in a war that literally has no end; Bush Started that war and Obama is trying to fight that war “responsibly.”
Click image to view the entire Petareus ad from Moveon.org
It’s as if Progressives are capable of rationalizing everything that a normal person would consider to be hypocritical. Examples of this abound. One of the more obvious examples would be of the September 10, 2007 advertisement Moveon.org ran in the New York Times accusing Cent-Com commander General David Patreus of “cooking the books” for the Bush White House. In 2010, the Obama White house selected General Patreus to take over operations in Afghanistan due to a “falling out” the President had with General McChrystal. What did Moveon.org say then? Nothing. In fact, the only action Moveon.org took was to erase any and all evidence of that original ad from its website. Luckily for us, the ad is still plastered all over the internet standing as a firm reminder of progressive hypocrisy. Other examples include:
- Progressives pretended all throughout the Bush years to be anti-war, the sounds of protest marches against those wars could be felt thundering in the streets. Now? Nothing but silence.
- Progressives claim to be anti-corporate welfare, yet defend the bailouts of the banks and stimulus packages as “necessary to save the middle class” even as millions of taxpayer dollars went to pay the bonuses of billionaire CEO’s.
- Progressives came out strongly against the “Stop loss” invoked by the US Military, claiming it is a defacto draft (a claim I agree with). Now, a few years later, several prominent progressive leaders have started calling for a Draft. Source
- Progressives consistently argue a stand against Corporatism, yet consistently support it, even claiming that anti-government ideologies such as Libertarianism ultimately lead to corporate fascism despite the fact that a corporation cannot even exist without the assistance of the Federal Government.
- Progressives claim that fascism comes from the political right, even as they spy on their own citizens, forcibly raise taxes, entertain the idea of a military draft, financially assist embattled corporations with taxpayer dollars, and force Americans to purchase health insurance whether they want to or not
- Progressives consider themselves to be enlightened “anti-racists”, yet insist on segregating people into groups such as “African-American”, “Latino”, “Asian American”, etc. Progressive “Godfather” Keith Oldbermann actually asked, “How many gays do you see at a Tea-Party Rally?”. What exactly does a “gay” look like Keith?
George Orwell defined it as “Doublethink”….. The ability to hold two contradictory beliefs simultaneously in one mind, and accept both without question. That is the power of the progressive mind. It is how they justify the actions of their leaders. It’s why they can protest against a war, but send more troops to fight it. It’s why they are able to vehemently oppose corporate welfare, but support corporate bailouts because “doing nothing would be worse”. It’s also how they can rail against deficit spending, but justify a one year deficit of 1.47 trillion dollars. They now defend the very policies they once fought against. Without even realizing it, most of them became Neo-Cons virtually overnight.
Once I heard a progressive say that “the free market caused the economic collapse.” A few minutes later he told me that a “free market doesn’t exist, and can’t exist anywhere on the planet”. To which I replied, “If a free market doesn’t exist, then how can you blame the economic ills of the world on it”? I never got a response, and I don’t believe I ever will.
Allow a Progressive to talk long enough and they will turn even the most simple conversation into a mental labyrinth of contradictory gibberish. The next time you hear a Progressive blame the state of the economy on the free market, ask them to define what a free market is. Make them explain how an anti-government ideology equates to corporate fascism. Ask them how sending 30,000 more troops into combat is anti-war. Then sit back and watch the angry psychological meltdown with glee.
I’ll never know why progressives grasped onto an illogical ideology with such rabid devotion, but at least now I understand how it operates. It can take both sides of a divisive issue and gain supporters from across the political spectrum because it is the master of delivering to the masses whatever they want to hear. In doing so, the progressive ideology managed to turn an entire political party into nothing but deranged hypocrites.
