Perhaps, I should de-clutter my apartment more often. When I do so, I keep coming across fodder for blog posts.
Last night, when tidying an old “roll-top” desk I inherited from my grandmother, I came across a passage on liberal arrogance I had printed out from James Taranto’s Best of the Web:
Liberals can be suckered precisely because they think they are the only intelligent people in America. This smug confidence insulates them from having to pay attention to what anybody else is saying. The conventional wisdom among liberals is that people disagree with them only because they are stupid, uneducated, or have been bought off by the sinister forces of American capitalism. . . .
You cannot find a liberal intellectual anywhere who can give you an honest, objective accounting of conservative positions on major issues. All they know is that conservatives are “stupid,” racist” and “scary”–boilerplate terms but unfortunately the exact words employed by [NPR executive Richard] Schiller on the tape. . . .
By assuming they are smarter than everybody else, liberals leave themselves utterly vulnerable to anyone who plays on their sense of superiority.
Feeling so superior maybe they just assume that their policies will work. And when they don’t, they seem unable to figure out why, so they start blaming conservatives.
But, if they’re so smart, wouldn’t they learn from their mistakes?
Perhaps their programs do work and are intended to make everyone else poorer and less free.
Does anyone realize how inept the federal, state and local governments are? Does anyone out there realize how much damage these governments are doing to this country? Hello? Anyone out there?
Wouldn’t it be great if the only regular contact we had with Government was when we mailed a letter?
Liberals like big government because you can’t blame a particular person, but the same big government keeps a new batch of victims.
We can all stand to learn from our mistakes, liberals included. Still, you seem to imply that they can find the answers from conservatives. I don’t think that’s at all the case, at least not in the simple form you’ve put out in this post; nor does your simplistic liberal/conservative dichotomy really get to the crux. But overall I can’t disagree that liberals do make policy mistakes.
See Sonicfrog’s clip of Al Sharpton’s show.
Dan, you give to much credit believing they give a damn. You should know better.
Went dumpster diving on Sen. Bill Nelson’s FB page this morning. One person left a comment complaining about big government. Some jackass replied by suggesting she move to Somalia and see how she likes no government.
Couldn’t help but wonder what wondrous machine replaces a dead brain and allows this person to breathe and type.
Good intentions always trump good results
But, if they’re so smart, wouldn’t they learn from their mistakes?
They would have to first acknowledge they made a mistake in order to learn from it.
Our board liberals provide a convenient and amusing reminder of the core belief of liberals and “progressives”: nothing bad that happens to them is ever their fault.
And since it’s not their fault, they never make the linkage between their behavior and the bad result — and thus they repeat the bad behavior ad infinitum, because this time, it will work!
Also remember the second core belief of liberalism and “progressivism”: everyone that came before them was dumber than they are. Indeed, the very idea of calling oneself “progressive” is to blindly state that everything that came before you was worse.
Hence the problem. Liberals and “progressives” can neither benefit from the mistakes they make or the mistakes that others have made before them.
Magickal Thinking has no logic; therefore, much of the liberals’ ideals are not based in the real world for practical purposes. When put in practice, they collapse. ObamaCare & Porkulus are the most obvious examples.
Some questions just answer themselves, don’t they?
Obama is at another campaign town hall regurtitating past speeches; he blames President Bush indirectly. Naturally, Obama has nothing to do with it. He wants tax increases. Idiot.
They don’t want to learn from their mistakes, they want power for themselves not a successful independent population. They are getting exactly what they want. Only problem for them is that private sector (milk cow) Isn’t playing along.
I had to throw my hands up and laugh at this one. It’s the irony that kills me. This author of the article is making the conservative version of that exact same mistake that he accuses liberals of.
Not quite, Rob. Conservatism actually works.
I see it as the exact opposite, of course. I think that liberals have a far better understanding of conservative positions than conservatives have of liberals.’ Who wants to tell me that I don’t support the troops? Who wants to tell me that I blame America first? Who wants to tell me that I coddle the terrorists, simply because I don’t want to go along with a policy that involves invading countries and torturing people? Who wants to tell me that I support pulling the plug on Grandma because I support universal healthcare? Who wants to tell me I am a childish hedonist that wants to avoid all responsibility for my actions because I’m pro-choice?
Republicans completely misrepresent the liberal positions on virtually every issue. Actual responses and arguments are replaced by the thoughtless catchphrases like those described above. They have nothing to do with policies and almost always hinge on some kind of personal defect you perceive liberals to have.
I, on the other hand, know all the conservative arguments, and I can even given you an honest, objective accounting of them. It might be the case that I consider conservative positions to be stupid, racist, and scary, but that doesn’t mean I can’t simply restate the positions that conservatives prefer. Meanwhile, could anyone that posts here talk about the progressive argument against the war without, for example, talking about how much we hate George Bush?
Let’s begin, shall we?
Of course he does. The deluded are seldom aware of their affliction.
That’s assuming rampant fear, hatred and cowardice can be described as “understanding.”
Who wants to tell Levi he supports a political ideology founded upon the belief that those who succeed in life are somehow “lucky” and have a responsibility to care for the less fortunate, whether they wish to, or not.
Who wants to tell Levi this is socialism?
Who wants to tell Levi that the Democrat Party don’t have nearly the sand of the Soviets; at least those guys didn’t spend a century blaming the opposition for their own inability to compete in the marketplace of ideas.
Who wants to tell Levi he’s hitched his wagon to a dying horse?
The projection and inability to see fault in anything or anyone within the Democrat Party, regardless of how irresponsible and reckless they’re shown to be is stunning. “We have to pass the bill to see what’s in it,” comes to mind. The unexplained failure of the Democrat’s to accomplish anything other than Obamacare while they had their majorities in both houses is another. The observation that liberals operate from a position of fear and hate is hardly a thoughtless catchphrase. The truth hurts, sometimes, especially when you align yourself with a political party thoroughly unfamiliar with it.
Actually, he doesn’t. He just knows that he loathes the very people that hold them.
See what I mean? Stupid, racist and scary do not mean honest and objective. Claiming that they do, however, is stupid, racist and scary.
Certainly. It would be nice if Levi had bothered to address them, or to perhaps tell us all how angry he is with Obama for having continued them.
Oh, I can.
1. Saddam Hussein was “in a box,” i.e. he was only butchering his own people, and he should have been allowed to continue doing so indefinitely. After all, they are only brown people.
2. Arabs don’t deserve democracy. After all, they are only brown people.
3. Diplomacy should have been allowed to continue to fail. Like the UN’s 14 ineffectual resolutions ordering Saddam Hussein to disarm, or the corruption-ridden Oil-For-Palaces program.
4. The money spent fighting terrorists in Iraq would have been better spent had it been handed out to teacher’s unions and useless Federal Bureaucrats… like the Stimulus.
Did I get that pretty much right?
(Of course, the point about hating Bush is salient since the Progressive Left has been pretty much OK with Obama continuing the same policies while opening up another war in Libya.)
Who wants to tell me that I don’t support the troops?
You don’t.
Who wants to tell me that I blame America first?
You do.
Who wants to tell me that I coddle the terrorists
You do.
That wasn’t difficult.
Now at this point, Levi, is where you start turning purple and screaming and demanding that the teacher/boss/coach/any authority figure who holds you responsible for your actions should be fired.
But Mommy and Daddy aren’t here to save you. You’ll have to man up and for the first time in your life take responsibility for what you support, endorse, and follow.
Who wants to show Levi’s a racist? Levi does
Who wants to show Levi coddles terrorists? Levi does.
Who wants to show Levi supports torture? Levi does.
Also in Levi’s world, calling our troops Nazis and accusing them of killing people in cold blood is ‘supporting’ the troops.
I forgot… Levi does support soldiers, when self admitted war criminals are running for office.
Now hush Levi, adults are talking.