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If liberals are so smart, how come their programs don’t work?

July 21, 2011 by B. Daniel Blatt

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?

Filed Under: Arrogance of the Liberal Elites, Random Thoughts

Comments

  1. V the K says

    July 21, 2011 at 7:00 pm - July 21, 2011

    Perhaps their programs do work and are intended to make everyone else poorer and less free.

  2. Richard Bell says

    July 21, 2011 at 7:17 pm - July 21, 2011

    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?

  3. V the K says

    July 21, 2011 at 7:19 pm - July 21, 2011

    Wouldn’t it be great if the only regular contact we had with Government was when we mailed a letter?

  4. Sebastian Shaw says

    July 21, 2011 at 7:47 pm - July 21, 2011

    Liberals like big government because you can’t blame a particular person, but the same big government keeps a new batch of victims.

  5. Joe Perez says

    July 21, 2011 at 9:05 pm - July 21, 2011

    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.

  6. TGC says

    July 21, 2011 at 9:53 pm - July 21, 2011

    This smug confidence insulates them from having to pay attention to what anybody else is saying.

    See Sonicfrog’s clip of Al Sharpton’s show.

    And when they don’t, they seem unable to figure out why,

    Dan, you give to much credit believing they give a damn. You should know better.

  7. TGC says

    July 21, 2011 at 9:56 pm - July 21, 2011

    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.

  8. Church Mouse Republican says

    July 21, 2011 at 11:07 pm - July 21, 2011

    Good intentions always trump good results

  9. North Dallas Thirty says

    July 22, 2011 at 12:25 am - July 22, 2011

    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.

  10. Sebastian Shaw says

    July 22, 2011 at 9:24 am - July 22, 2011

    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.

  11. alanstorm says

    July 22, 2011 at 9:33 am - July 22, 2011

    Some questions just answer themselves, don’t they?

  12. Sebastian Shaw says

    July 22, 2011 at 11:09 am - July 22, 2011

    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.

  13. Leah says

    July 22, 2011 at 11:38 am - July 22, 2011

    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.

  14. Rob Tisinai says

    July 22, 2011 at 12:21 pm - July 22, 2011

    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.

  15. V the K says

    July 22, 2011 at 12:26 pm - July 22, 2011

    Not quite, Rob. Conservatism actually works.

  16. Levi says

    July 23, 2011 at 6:22 am - July 23, 2011

    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. . . .

    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?

  17. Eric Olsen says

    July 23, 2011 at 7:21 am - July 23, 2011

    Let’s begin, shall we?

    I see it as the exact opposite, of course.

    Of course he does. The deluded are seldom aware of their affliction.

    I think that liberals have a far better understanding of conservative positions than conservatives have of liberals.

    That’s assuming rampant fear, hatred and cowardice can be described as “understanding.”

    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?

    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?

    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.

    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.

    I, on the other hand, know all the conservative arguments…

    Actually, he doesn’t. He just knows that he loathes the very people that hold them.

    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.

    See what I mean? Stupid, racist and scary do not mean honest and objective. Claiming that they do, however, is stupid, racist and scary.

    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?

    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.

  18. V the K says

    July 23, 2011 at 11:34 am - July 23, 2011

    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?

    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.)

  19. North Dallas Thirty says

    July 23, 2011 at 2:19 pm - July 23, 2011

    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.

  20. The_Livewire says

    July 24, 2011 at 11:24 am - July 24, 2011

    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.

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