{"id":12201,"date":"2020-02-19T12:07:16","date_gmt":"2020-02-19T20:07:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/?p=12201"},"modified":"2020-02-19T12:10:58","modified_gmt":"2020-02-19T20:10:58","slug":"reaching-peak-progressivism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/reaching-peak-progressivism\/","title":{"rendered":"Reaching Peak Progressivism"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Victor Davis Hanson \/\/ American Greatness<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In 2020 we have finally hit peak progressivism. The adjective \u201cpeak\u201d\u2014apex or summit\u2014 is often used to describe something that has reached its maximum extent but thereafter will insidiously decline\u2014like supposed U.S. domestic oil production in 2000 when more oil was purportedly taken out of, rather than still in the ground. While the idea of peak oil in the days before fracking and horizontal drilling proved vastly premature, we likely are witnessing something like \u201cpeak progressivism\u201d today.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>By that I mean the hard-left takeover of the Democratic Party and the accompanying progressive agenda now have reached an extreme\u2014beyond which will only result in the steady erosion of radical ideology altogether.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The French Revolution hit \u201cpeak\u201d coerced egalitarianism with the Jacobin takeover and so-called Reign of Terror. After all, when you begin guillotining fellow travelers on charges they are counterrevolutionaries and begin worshiping a new atheist secular power \u201cReason,\u201d institutionalized as Robespierre\u2019s \u201cCult of the Supreme Being,\u201d you have mostly reached the limits of political radicalism and are into the territory of the nihilistic, if not the maniacal and absurd\u2014with a rendezvous with Napoleon on the horizon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>From 2009 through 2016, Barack Obama recalibrated the Democratic Party\u2019s liberalism into progressive radicalism. He opened the border and all but dismantled existing immigration law. Sanctuary cities sprang up with impunity. Executive orders bypassed the Congress. The Iran Deal ignored the Senate\u2019s treaty-making responsibilities. Obama sought to nationalize healthcare. The concept of \u201cdiversity\u201d replaced affirmative action, by redefining racial oppression as distinct from historical grievance and economic disparity and instead lumping together 30 percent of the population as nonwhite, and thus antithetical to the new buzz construct of \u201cwhite privilege.\u201d Fast and Furious, the surveillance of the Associated Press reporters, Benghazi, the weaponization of the IRS, and the use of CIA, FBI, and DOJ to seed the spurious Steele dossier were all written off as proof of the \u201cmost scandal free\u201d administration in memory.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>But today Obamaism has been figuratively guillotined by the New Jacobins. It is found guilty of crimes of insufficient revolutionary zeal, as well as compromises with the U.S. Constitution and capitalism.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Once considered a crank socialist, Senator Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) is now leads in many Democratic primary polls. Arriving with him at this moment in our politics is peak progressivism.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/amgreatness.com\/2020\/02\/16\/reaching-peak-progressivism\/\">Read the full article here<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Victor Davis Hanson \/\/ American Greatness In 2020 we have finally hit peak progressivism. The adjective \u201cpeak\u201d\u2014apex or summit\u2014 is often used to describe something that has reached its maximum extent but thereafter will insidiously decline\u2014like supposed U.S. domestic oil production in 2000 when more oil was purportedly taken out of, rather than still in [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p466Sb-3aN","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":10113,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/apocalyptic-progressivism\/","url_meta":{"origin":12201,"position":0},"title":"Apocalyptic Progressivism","author":"victorhanson","date":"April 24, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"by Victor Davis Hanson\/\/ National Review Instead of overcoming challenges, progressive politicians exploit them to expand government. Shortly after the 2008 election, President Obama\u2019s soon-to-be chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel, infamously declared, \u201cYou never let a serious crisis go to waste.\u201d He elaborated: \u201cWhat I mean by that [is] it\u2019s\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Water&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Water","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/water\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":11763,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/with-mueller-hopes-gone-so-goes-progressive-unity\/","url_meta":{"origin":12201,"position":1},"title":"With Mueller Hopes Gone, So Goes Progressive Unity","author":"victorhanson","date":"April 4, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"Victor Davis Hanson \/\/ American Greatness The Democratic Party has lots of radical new ideas, and lots of radical presidential candidates and politicos. But the common hatred of President Donald Trump has united otherwise quite disparate Democratic leaders such as House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.); former Vice President Joe Biden;\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;2020 Election&quot;","block_context":{"text":"2020 Election","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/2020-election\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":11752,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/the-virtuous-can-never-be-guilty\/","url_meta":{"origin":12201,"position":2},"title":"The Virtuous Can Never Be Guilty","author":"victorhanson","date":"April 2, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"Victor Davis Hanson \/\/ National Review Since ancient times, it has always been scary when moral auditors audit their own. Or as the Roman satirist Juvenal put it of male guardians entrusted to shield chaste girls from randy males,\u00a0Quis\u00a0custodiet\u00a0ipsos\u00a0custodes?\u00a0(\u201cWho will watch the watchmen?\u201d) When humans sense that there\u2019s neither an\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Progressivism&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Progressivism","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/progressivism\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":11045,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/the-rapid-progress-of-progressivism\/","url_meta":{"origin":12201,"position":3},"title":"The Rapid \u2018Progress\u2019 of Progressivism","author":"victorhanson","date":"March 8, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"Victor Davis Hanson \/\/ National Review It leads to an endless race for equality and erodes prior rules.Not long ago I waited for a flight to board. The plane took off 45 minutes late. There were only two attendants to accommodate eleven passengers who had requested wheelchair assistance. Such growing\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Liberals&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Liberals","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/liberals\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":8347,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/l-ron-obama-and-the-church-of-progressivism\/","url_meta":{"origin":12201,"position":4},"title":"L. Ron Obama and the Church of Progressivism","author":"victorhanson","date":"April 17, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"by Bruce S.Thornton \/\/ FrontPage Magazine The HBO documentary about Scientology, \u201cGoing Clear,\u201d is a must-see. Not so much because it exposes Scientology as a moneymaking, totalitarian cult, something most people already have known for 50 years. More useful is the film\u2019s description of Scientology\u2019s ideas, techniques, and tactics, for\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Religion&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Religion","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/religion\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Photo via FrontPage Magazine","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/obama1.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":11267,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/historys-bad-ideas-are-an-inspiration-for-progressives\/","url_meta":{"origin":12201,"position":5},"title":"History\u2019s Bad Ideas Are an Inspiration for Progressives","author":"victorhanson","date":"July 6, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"Victor Davis Hanson \/\/ American Greatness What we now consider stupid and dangerous ideas of the past, progressives see as useful in the present. Even liberal historians usually label as disastrous two decisions by the Franklin D. Roosevelt Administration: the adoption of the Earl Warren-McClatchy newspaper inspired plan to intern\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Progressivism&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Progressivism","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/progressivism\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12201"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12201"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12201\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12204,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12201\/revisions\/12204"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12201"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12201"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12201"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}