by Bruce S. Thornton<\/p>\n
FrontPage Magazine<\/em><\/p>\n Obama\u2019s presidency has failed miserably, but it has accomplished one thing: it has revealed for all to see the lethal pathologies of progressive ideology. This doesn\u2019t mean progressivism will go away. We thought the New Democrat Bill Clinton had put progressive ideas to rest when he said that the era of big government was over, and then reformed welfare and cut government spending from 23.5% of GDP to 19.5%. Yet despite the success that followed his rejection of failed liberal policies, here we are in the fourth year of Obama\u2019s term, saddled with $5 trillion in new debt, a stalled economy, a National Labor Relations Board carrying water for the unions, a blatantly politicized Department of Justice, and rapidly metastasizing entitlement programs. Meanwhile the president indulges in class-warfare rhetoric young a century ago, and calls for even more redistributionist deficit spending to benefit his political cronies and clients.<\/p>\n The worst economic recovery since World War II that Obama and the Democrats midwifed has exposed the failure of the notion that the government can create economic growth and wealth rather than merely expropriating it from the creative and productive, and that centralized planning and regulating by \u201cexperts\u201d can more efficiently allocate resources than the free market does. But more important is the underlying idea of progressivism that Obama\u2019s policies are predicated on: Perfect justice, prosperity, and equality are possible if enlightened elites are given the power to organize and run society according to \u201cscientific\u201d knowledge about human nature and behavior. For two centuries this hubristic idea has led to failure, misery, and murder on a vast scale, yet progressives continue to increase government power in order to create this impossible utopia. Obamacare is just the latest iteration of this frequently demonstrated fallacy that complex human behavior, which reflects the unpredictable free will of millions of unique individuals, can be organized, controlled and regimented in order to achieve some dream-world utopia. That progressives still cling to this exploded idea despite the evidence of history and a disintegrating EU shows just how reactionary and blinkered they are.<\/p>\n But the list of progressive fallacies exposed by Obama is much longer. He has laid bare the hypocrisies and failures of the race-based identity politics that lie behind affirmative action and other racialist policies. Only by dint of the Jim Crow one-drop rule can someone who is half-black, who was raised in one of the least black states in the union by white grandparents, who had no exposure to black American culture and mores in his formative years, and who graduated from exclusive, elitist, predominantly white universities be considered authentically black. Moreover, his manifest ignorance about everything from pronunciation of common words to the basics of history and economics has exposed the gross inflation of his abilities by whites, one based not on performance but on assertion. Remember the presidential historian who claimed, with no evidence from transcripts or test scores, that Obama was probably the smartest president ever? Obama illustrates the truth that progressive racial policies are based on the illiberal idea that predicates minority identity on simplistic group stereotypes and the presumption of victimhood based on nothing other than melanin quotient and hair texture.<\/p>\n Then there\u2019s the obvious dishonesty of progressive claims to care for the welfare of the \u201cpeople\u201d and battle for their interests against the elite. Remember Al Gore\u2019s 2000 campaign slogan, \u201cThe People vs the Powerful\u201d? Or Occupy Wall Street\u2019s \u201cWe are the 99%\u201d? In the progressive worldview, public employees who earn more than private sector workers, enjoy greater job security, and get gold-plated health and retirement benefits are the downtrodden workers that evil capitalist stooges like Wisconsin\u2019s Scott Walker are eager to destroy. Twenty-something Occupy Wall Street riffraff \u2014 with federally subsidized, useless college degrees and the leisure to befoul public spaces and vandalize private property in order to promote decrepit bumper-sticker politics \u2014 are \u201cdissident\u201d idealists bravely opposing the \u201cman.\u201d Zillionaire movie stars and pop divas with little or no education are noble, enlightened protestors against \u201cincome inequality\u201d and the depredations of the \u201c1%.\u201d Well-heeled global-warming alarmists gorging on federal \u201cclean-energy\u201d subsidies and trailing King-Kong carbon footprints are admired champions of the environment being ravaged by corporate barbarians.<\/p>\n In fact, it is the progressives who are the party of big-money elites out of touch with the average American. In 2008, Obama reaped a third of a billion dollars from blue-state plutocrats like Goldman Sachs, the University of California, Time-Warner, Google, and Microsoft. This trolling for cash in America\u2019s richest zip codes is continuing this election cycle, which has seen\u00a0Vogue<\/em>\u00a0editor Anna Wintour offer\u00a0hoi polloi<\/em>\u00a0a chance to win a seat at her fundraiser for Obama. Even liberal Juan Williams saw the class snobbery of letting \u201csomeone who reeks of ornamental excess announce that the peasants can have a place at the table.\u201d But why are we surprised? As David Horowitz and Jacob Laksin document in their just-published\u00a0The New Leviathan<\/em>, progressive tax-exempt foundations, with a near-trillion-dollar war chest, outspend conservatives 7-1, while currency manipulator George Soros pour billions into progressive causes. Meanwhile, the most populist, grass-roots political movement in decades, the Tea Party, is slandered as racist hillbillies clinging to their guns and religion.<\/p>\n Next is the big lie that progressives are all about human freedom. What they have promoted is more accurately called license: the selfish freedom to do whatever you want no matter the cost, which then must be picked up by the taxpayer. Hence the elevation of abortion into the most important sacrament in the progressive church. Sexual pleasure and license can now appear to be \u201ccost free\u201d because no matter how careless or stupid people are, the consequences of their bad choices can be eliminated or mitigated on somebody else\u2019s nickel. Progressive freedom is all about the freedom to indulge selfish appetites without the restraints of virtue, shame, guilt, or morality \u2014 unless, of course, one desires to better oneself economically without the state meddling in your business and filching your earnings. Then we will hear fire-and-brimstone sermons about the \u201cgreed\u201d of the \u201cselfish\u201d redolent of Cotton Mather.<\/p>\n Genuine political freedom, on the other hand, the freedom to run our lives and the state according to high principles that seek to make us better human beings worthy of freedom, always entails the need for personal responsibility and accountability, and the acceptance of risk and failure. But these are all anathema to the progressive, who wants the state to take responsibility for our actions, insulate us from the consequences of our bad choices, and compensate for our loss of true freedom by distracting us with the license to gratify our appetites. But as political philosophers from Plato to Tocqueville have pointed out, this \u201csoft despotism\u201d ends up empowering the state and \u201cenlightened\u201d elites, and thus puts at risk our political freedom and autonomy.<\/p>\n Finally, the arch-virtue of the progressive, tolerance, is in fact the rankest intolerance. We should tolerate pornography and vulgarity in the public square, but stamp out religious speech or criminalize conservative criticism as \u201chate speech.\u201d We should understand and sympathize with the terrorist and not rush to judge him, but reflexively condemn and hound those who try to stop him. We should seek out and promote diverse points of view, but censor or silence those of \u201cconservatives\u201d and other ideological reprobates. We should show \u201ccivility\u201d in our political discourse, but savage with relish political enemies. We should admire and privilege non-Western religions, but attack Christianity and Judaism as oppressive superstitions. We should praise and promote all lifestyles no matter how distasteful or sordid, yet ridicule traditional mores and virtues. We should root out racism, sexism, and homophobia, but make an exception for minorities, feminists, and Muslims.<\/p>\n Failed economic theory, illiberal racial policies, elitist snobbery, political freedom reduced to selfish license, and intolerance of disagreement and dissent \u2014 these are some of the pathologies of progressivism that have been illustrated every day of Obama\u2019s presidency. It will take November\u2019s election to show whether a critical mass of Americans has finally had their fill of this rancid progressive wine, or whether it returns once again in a new bottle.<\/p>\n \u00a92012 Bruce S. Thornton<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" by Bruce S. Thornton FrontPage Magazine Obama\u2019s presidency has failed miserably, but it has accomplished one thing: it has revealed for all to see the lethal pathologies of progressive ideology. This doesn\u2019t mean progressivism will go away.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","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":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[22,187,536,271],"tags":[56,12,192,165,1026,279,291,40,302,1042,93,1056,527,242,67,1030],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p466Sb-bi","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":6883,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/2014-year-of-decision\/","url_meta":{"origin":700,"position":0},"title":"2014: Year of Decision","author":"victorhanson","date":"January 6, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"by Bruce S. Thornton \/\/\u00a0FrontPage Magazine\u00a0 This year we will see if America is still a center-right country, or if Obama\u2019s two terms will mark a historic shift to the left. History and recent events give cause for optimism, subject, of course, to unforeseen events. The champions of big government,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Bruce S. Thornton"","block_context":{"text":"Bruce S. Thornton","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/our-contributors\/bruce-s-thornton\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":6636,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/barack-obama-and-the-bad-ideas-of-progressivism\/","url_meta":{"origin":700,"position":1},"title":"Barack Obama and the Bad Ideas of Progressivism","author":"victorhanson","date":"October 17, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"by Bruce S. Thornton \/\/\u00a0FrontPage Magazine\u00a0 Barack Obama\u2019s serial gross incompetence has elicited all sorts of explanatory theories. He\u2019s a closet socialist, an Alinskyite radical, a secret Muslim, or an anti-American internationalist. Though some of Obama\u2019s words and deeds give support to all these speculations, I prefer a simpler explanation.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Bruce S. Thornton"","block_context":{"text":"Bruce S. Thornton","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/our-contributors\/bruce-s-thornton\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":523,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/what-the-ryan-choice-means-for-november\/","url_meta":{"origin":700,"position":2},"title":"What the Ryan Choice Means for November","author":"victorhanson","date":"August 14, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"by Bruce Thornton Frontpage Magazine Last week\u2019s poll numbers seemingly confirmed the doubts about democracy\u2019s viability expressed in last week\u2019s\u00a0column. After a barrage of outrageous smears fired off by the Obama campaign, which accused Romney of killing a woman with cancer and failing to pay any income tax, Obama is\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Bruce S. Thornton"","block_context":{"text":"Bruce S. Thornton","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/our-contributors\/bruce-s-thornton\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1138,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/its-the-president-stupid-the-referendum-on-barack-obama\/","url_meta":{"origin":700,"position":3},"title":"It’s the President Stupid: The Referendum on Barack Obama","author":"victorhanson","date":"November 10, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"by Bruce S. Thornton RightNetwork.com The people have spoken, and what they have said concerns more than just the wrong-headed policies the Democrats have inflicted upon us in the past few years. This election was never just about policy \u2013\u2013 it was also about Barack Obama and the repudiation of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Bruce S. Thornton"","block_context":{"text":"Bruce S. Thornton","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/our-contributors\/bruce-s-thornton\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2816,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/the-obama-administration-and-the-monopoly-on-education\/","url_meta":{"origin":700,"position":4},"title":"The Obama Administration and the Monopoly on Education","author":"victorhanson","date":"April 29, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"by Bruce S. Thornton First Principles Part two of a symposium on the educational impact of Obama and the New Progressivism. Read\u00a0part one\u00a0on the economic prospects and\u00a0part three\u00a0on culture. What changes might we expect in higher education from an Obama presidency? The answer is easy: none. What we will get\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Bruce S. Thornton"","block_context":{"text":"Bruce S. Thornton","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/our-contributors\/bruce-s-thornton\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":843,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/class-warfare-the-last-refuge-of-a-failed-presidency\/","url_meta":{"origin":700,"position":5},"title":"Class Warfare the Last Refuge of a Failed Presidency","author":"victorhanson","date":"April 12, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"by Bruce S. Thornton FrontPage Media Now that Mitt Romney will be Obama\u2019s opponent in November, the Democrats are rolling out the false narrative they will use to demonize Romney and obscure four years of failed economic policies that have created the worst recovery from a recession since the Great\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Bruce S. Thornton"","block_context":{"text":"Bruce S. Thornton","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/our-contributors\/bruce-s-thornton\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/700"}],"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=700"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/700\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5843,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/700\/revisions\/5843"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=700"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=700"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=700"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}