We all know the story of the Kennedy assassination on November 22, 1963. A lefty ex-Marine who'd been to Moscow and to Cuba did it.
But liberals have ever since wanted to believe that it was right-wing hate that did it. George Will rehearses the story for us.
James Reston wrote that Kennedy was "a victim of a 'streak of violence in the American character,' noting especially 'the violence of the extremists on the right.'" A New York Times editorial spoke of "the shame all America must bear for the spirit of madness and hate that struck down" JFK. Really? From a lefty that went to Moscow?
What were they smoking? And, of course, as the assassinations continued with Martin Luther King and Robert Kennedy, liberals intensified their indictment of America. Gun violence was the problem, they have insisted ever since.
Now we see the same paranoia from liberals. It's directed at the Tea Party, the most sober and friendly of political movements. But liberals call Tea Partiers "extremists." It's directed at the government shutdown. Liberals call the Republicans "arsonists."
I don't think there is anything special here. We are just seeing the natural behavior of a quasi-religious movement. Liberals don't experience politics as politics, but as saving religion. So any setbacks they experience are not the vicissitudes of life, but the power of Satan.
Right now liberals are in a perilous situation. The economy is barely recovering from the Crash of 2008 and liberals don't know why, because it ought to have responded to their wise Keynesian medicine. Obamacare is debuting to catcalls; this is utterly demoralizing given that universal health care is a natural evolution of every civilized society. Republicans, the hated party of racists, sexists, bigots, and homophobes, gives every indication of obstreperous disrespect. Something weird and chthonic is taking place, and liberals are feeling the strain. Liberals are starting to panic.
Rewinding back to the Sixties, the self-delusion that began with the "climate of hate" response to the Kennedy assassination ended up in the stagflation and powerlessness of the Carter years. The remedy was the Reagan revolution of 1980.
It's beginning to look as if the delusion of 2000, that liberals were robbed of the election of Al Gore, that continued through the mad partisan destruction of George W. Bush and into the delusive worship of Barack Obama, is set to end in a massive liberal crackup in 2014-2016.
And it all issues from the central liberal delusion, that you can build a good society on the government of experts and activists, that administration and system can improve on the natural sociability of human individuals.
Our liberal friends make a big deal about the importance of science, at least when it comes to evolution and climate. But when it comes to economics and government they are the worst deniers of all. Government, we know from economics and public choice theory, is a very blunt instrument and is just not up to the job of running a modern society.
Once you promote government from the job of defending against enemies foreign and domestic you are heading for trouble. That's because government is force, and force always means a war, and force applied to your fellow citizens leads to injustice.
Liberals have no clue about the depth and breadth of the injustice they have sponsored in this nation with their endless wars on poverty and wars on behalf of the marginalized.
But injustice is injustice. Sooner or later it finds its voice and builds up to a head of rebellion.
And liberals, in their delusions about right-wing hate, will be the last to know.
But liberals have ever since wanted to believe that it was right-wing hate that did it. George Will rehearses the story for us.
James Reston wrote that Kennedy was "a victim of a 'streak of violence in the American character,' noting especially 'the violence of the extremists on the right.'" A New York Times editorial spoke of "the shame all America must bear for the spirit of madness and hate that struck down" JFK. Really? From a lefty that went to Moscow?
What were they smoking? And, of course, as the assassinations continued with Martin Luther King and Robert Kennedy, liberals intensified their indictment of America. Gun violence was the problem, they have insisted ever since.
Now we see the same paranoia from liberals. It's directed at the Tea Party, the most sober and friendly of political movements. But liberals call Tea Partiers "extremists." It's directed at the government shutdown. Liberals call the Republicans "arsonists."
I don't think there is anything special here. We are just seeing the natural behavior of a quasi-religious movement. Liberals don't experience politics as politics, but as saving religion. So any setbacks they experience are not the vicissitudes of life, but the power of Satan.
Right now liberals are in a perilous situation. The economy is barely recovering from the Crash of 2008 and liberals don't know why, because it ought to have responded to their wise Keynesian medicine. Obamacare is debuting to catcalls; this is utterly demoralizing given that universal health care is a natural evolution of every civilized society. Republicans, the hated party of racists, sexists, bigots, and homophobes, gives every indication of obstreperous disrespect. Something weird and chthonic is taking place, and liberals are feeling the strain. Liberals are starting to panic.
Rewinding back to the Sixties, the self-delusion that began with the "climate of hate" response to the Kennedy assassination ended up in the stagflation and powerlessness of the Carter years. The remedy was the Reagan revolution of 1980.
It's beginning to look as if the delusion of 2000, that liberals were robbed of the election of Al Gore, that continued through the mad partisan destruction of George W. Bush and into the delusive worship of Barack Obama, is set to end in a massive liberal crackup in 2014-2016.
And it all issues from the central liberal delusion, that you can build a good society on the government of experts and activists, that administration and system can improve on the natural sociability of human individuals.
Our liberal friends make a big deal about the importance of science, at least when it comes to evolution and climate. But when it comes to economics and government they are the worst deniers of all. Government, we know from economics and public choice theory, is a very blunt instrument and is just not up to the job of running a modern society.
Once you promote government from the job of defending against enemies foreign and domestic you are heading for trouble. That's because government is force, and force always means a war, and force applied to your fellow citizens leads to injustice.
Liberals have no clue about the depth and breadth of the injustice they have sponsored in this nation with their endless wars on poverty and wars on behalf of the marginalized.
But injustice is injustice. Sooner or later it finds its voice and builds up to a head of rebellion.
And liberals, in their delusions about right-wing hate, will be the last to know.
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