Twelve Things I Notice About Liberals Since the Debt Limit Debate Started

Something’s going on lately. They’re acting all cornered, wounded, tender, defensive. Since the election of Nancy Pelosi back in ’06 they had been going back to being petty, childish, smug, snooty, “aggressively non-threatening NPR male” Alan-Alda peevish. Now they’re back to the way they were after the Bush v. Gore decision. Us smart and good, you stupid and evil! Grrrr!

Not all twelve of these observations are entirely new. Some of them are things I’ve noticed awhile ago, a few I’ve even written about, but those have become more crystallized with the events of the last two or three months.

1. They want government to manage more and more intimate aspects of our lives, without transparency, oversight or process of appeal, even though six years out of ten they tell us the government is doing bad things because the guy at the top of it is stupid or evil.

2. They’re terribly concerned about the solvency of the government during these debates about taxes, and want the “rich to pay their fair share” so the government doesn’t run out of money and go into debt. But then when it comes time to discuss the continuation of a program, or possibly starting up a whole new program, suddenly their concern about government solvency flies out the window.

3. They seem genuinely agitated about the length and the emptiness of the yawning chasm between the rich and the poor, and rail against the social problems attendant to the preservation of an aristocracy entrenched in privilege which is perpetually renewed without merit. But the very first thing that happens when they’re in charge, is their election of some charismatic individual who is to be entrenched in sustained and unearned perpetual privilege. All of their domestic agenda items have something to do with just a narrow and elite few unilaterally dictating the benefits and burdens to be applied to the many. Everyone is to be impacted by what is done; it cannot be set up in a test bed to see how well it works, it must be deployed for the very first time right on the production floor, and there can’t be any getting away from it. And yet any discussions about how it will work, have to take place behind closed doors, and not everyone can take part.

4. You ask them to point out when & where higher taxes did something good for an economy, and without fail they point to FDR’s New Deal which, along with the opening of World War II, lifted us from the Great Depression. Okay…so your policies, plus the LARGEST MILITARY CONFLICT IN THE HISTORY OF MANKIND, will measurably improve an economy?

5. They don’t even seem to have an internal understanding of what an “economy” is. It seems like their point-of-view is that the government is part of the economy, but I don’t hear them actually say this, nor do I hear them dispute the point that the government is outside of what is commonly referred to as the “free market.” It’s like this is a question on which they haven’t coordinated yet; is “the economy” a different, larger thing apart from the “free market”? Or are these two terms used to describe the same thing, the government is outside of the economy — which must mean they think “the economy” is something helped when wealth is removed from it, so that their prescription becomes indistinguishable from the notorious bedside bloodletting of the middle ages.

6. According to them, America has cherished modern liberal values from the very beginning and it is the conservatives who are usurping the constitutional values of the republic by demanding the republic be governed according to the Constitution. The American Revolution, therefore, was a victory of liberalism over conservatism, which was represented by King George III and Great Britain. Yet, also according to them, there is something about America that makes the poor get poorer, allows businesses to run roughshod over “working families”…it’s just a terrible place and we need someone strong to fix everything. Take it all seriously, and it points to an inescapable conclusion that liberalism is destined to fail. And that’s according to the liberals.

7. They say one of the many things wrong with Christians is that the Christians insist their faith is the only path to salvation, therefore there is something wrong with anyone who doesn’t follow it. They then proceed to vilify Ayn Rand as a terrible person…and then throw out the zinger that oh, by the way, didn’t you know she was an atheist? Which seems to have some significance for them. But, according to their own argument, such a thing cannot have any significance in any way whatsoever. Judging from their own conduct, it obviously does.

8. They certainly are fond of diatribes about their ideological opponents being evil or stupid. Produce some evidence unfriendly to their position, ask them for something similar to support what they’re trying to say, and if they don’t have it ready — here comes the snark. It will be bitter, it will be pointed, it will be focused, it will be personal. Above all, it will be a sure thing, like tomorrow’s sunrise. But according to their constant complaints, it’s the other side doing that. Classic psychological projection. Evil, stupid, stupid, evil…with a great flourish, they go through the motions of applying some intelligence test, or “goodness” test, and finding their opponent wanting. But what they’re really applying is a loyalty test.

9. The evil/stupid thing has some complexity to it that’s a little tough to figure out, for those on the outside. Liberals seem united on the idea that George W. Bush is stupid and Dick Cheney is evil. Circulate a questionnaire among a thousand liberals, and all thousand will mark the boxes that say Bush=Stupid and Cheney=Evil. That seems to be the orientation; now and then someone will occasionally pronounce Bush to be Evil, but I’ve yet to hear a single one say Cheney is Stupid. I haven’t heard anybody say Sarah Palin is Evil, either. Did they all meet somewhere and decide Dick Cheney is some kind of rocket scientist genius and Sarah Palin is an okay person, therefore the dogs of Cheney=Stupid and Palin=Evil just aren’t gonna hunt, so don’t even try it? If that’s what they think, they’re doing a great job of hiding it.

10. If they have a plan for improving the economy, and after it’s implemented the economy improves, this is proof that their plan must have worked. If, after the plan is implemented, the economy suffers — this, also, is proof that their plan is the right way to go, we’re just not doing enough of it.

11. I notice when our country is in some conflict with another country, their recipe is for a diplomatic solution. Very often I hear the phrase “sit down and talk out our differences.” They don’t discuss much what exactly is going to be said in these sit-downs, but after you listen to them awhile it’s clear they want America to be making most or all of the concessions while the other country makes none. Another thing I hear from them often is that we are “seen” as arrogant, lacking in humility, and we need to work harder to clean up our rep. Now, when their partisan faction enters into conflict with somebody else, they work this very differently — in that situation, it is the other side that needs to be making more concessions to them, even if they’re the ones who just lost an election. Their party does not have a problem with “humility.” I suppose that reads like I’m saying they’re safeguarding liberals’ interests in a way different from how they’re safeguarding the country’s interests…well, hey. Gotta call it like I see it.

12. They must understand that if we have a pressing and urgent problem with the atmosphere filling up with carbon & the earth heating up as a result, and we also have a pressing and urgent concern with our government running out of money, an individual’s effort to curtail his own carbon emissions isn’t going to make any difference at all with the environmental problem, whereas a few people contributing voluntarily to the Treasury just might change the outcome for the better. And yet, liberal individuals do not brag about donating excess money to the Treasury; they brag about drinking out of eco-cups and driving hybrids. That is supposed to show they’re the ones more concerned about things like “reality” and “science.”

Cross-posted at House of Eratosthenes and Right Wing News.