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The Pinnacle of Patronizing Paternalism

by Conservativity Staff,
Originally Posted: 2/10/2010 1:47:38 PM

There  is an evil trend materializing among the Left.  As these radical elitists realize that their plans have infuriated the people. they have reacted with rage.  Michael Cohen wrote a truly reprehensible piece in Newsweek, entitled America the Ungovernable, that blamed Republicans, Democrats and finally an "incoherent public" for the fact that the Leftists’ sweeping agenda has been effectively thwarted.  In Slate, Jacob Weisberg write an article named -- get this -- "Down with the People," and subtitled "Blame the childish, ignorant American public -- not politicians -- for our political and economic crisis."  I feel like I have awakened in some bizarre parallel universe.  Are the leftists now actually calling the American people stupid?  Let’s see how that plays in November!

The gravamen of these authors’ grumblings focuses on bemoaning the use of the filibuster against the Democrat agenda, and further on the unpopularity of the despotic initiatives against which the GOP has effectively protected the people.  Never mind that the filibuster was considered a sacred cow when the Democrats were in the minority, which they used to block numerous Black and Hispanic judicial nominees.  Now it is being used against the Democrats, so the very same people who tenaciously defended the filibuster prior to four years ago when the Democrats took over Congress now decry it as some unconstitutional evil.  In the Democrats’ world, only Republicans are ever guilty of hypocrisy.  

The situation is changing by the day, and for the worse, for the leftists.  The generic Congressional poll favors the GOP and by a widening margin.  The Democrats have lost governorships in New Jersey and Virginia to the GOP (Remember how the leftists crowed that they had flipped Virginia to a "blue" state?).  A conservative Republican has won a Senate seat in Massachusetts -- the very senate seat that has been occupied by a person with the surname of Kennedy for well over half a century!  Numerous Democrats have retired rather than face the wrath of the voters in November 2010.  Others, including Harry Reid, face existential fights to keep their seats.  Even Barbara Boxer is at risk in California.  Reasonable pollsters have concluded that, absent a sea change in American sentiment, we’re about 10 1/2 months from John Boehner as the Speaker of the House, Mitch McConnell as leader of a 51-seat GOP majority, and the loss of President Obama’s and Vice President Biden’s former Senate seats to the GOP.

The resulting frustration among the extreme liberals that run the Democrat party has erupted into unmitigated rage!  To the Democrats, the thought is "How dare these idiotic plebs refuse what we have deigned to do for what we have determined to be good for them!"  The leftists tried to blame Republicans for their inability to marshal their own legislators to vote as a bloc, which would effectively cram the legislation down our collective throats.  Were the moderate Democrats in Congress not terrified of their constituents’ wrath, they would have not flouted their leadership (which, by the way, is comprised of extreme leftist 1960s socialists).  Therefore, the "blame the GOP" gambit, which reached its pinnacle when Mr. Obama blamed the peoples’ anger at George Bush for the Massachusetts people’s election of GOP conservative Scott Brown to the Senate, failed miserably.

The left therefore turned its rage to the people!  How consummately ridiculous!   Hence we are now being bombarded by this supercilious tripe.  The people -- that’s right, the people -- are harshly excoriated for hating the stimulus boondoggle, while later polls show the people thought that too much money was spent on it.  The people in some polls want to balance the Federal budget, but other polls putatively show that the people refuse to give up any government services or entitlements.  Hence the cleverly-contrived accusations that the people are incoherent.

The premise of these paternalistic despotic leftists is false.  Comparing polls from different pollsters against different samples (with different sampling biases), with different question sets and unknown (but diverse) viewpoints is simply useless.  Furthermore, other polls -- buried by the leftist press -- give lie to the conclusion.  for example, the Washington Post conducted a poll January 12-15, 2010, to 1,083 American adults.  Over 58% stated that they wanted a smaller government with fewer services, and only 38% wanted a larger government with more services.  The people are not incoherent.

But let’s assume for argument that the polls did show that the people wanted a balanced budget, more services, lower taxes, and no reduction in entitlements.  Does that make them stupid or does that reflect the horrible lessons taught to the people by leftists -- Democrats -- who act as if the government has an endless supply of money from apparent non-tax sources?  Are the people stupid for buying into the notion that real estate prices would go up forever when an Economics 101 student knows that is false, and thus buy a huge home with inadequate income to service a mortgage obtained by lending standards made too lax by Democrat efforts to bully mortgage bankers into lending?  Is it any surprise that the people are angry when they lose those homes?  

The people are wise.  The filibuster, as employed by the GOP in 2009, saved the United States from ruin.  The leftists who blame the people need only blame the subset of people who are visible when they look in a mirror.