Posted by
Andrews on Monday, October 13, 2008 2:12:49 PM
A few recent posts have brought something to my attention, the left is much more patient than the right.
I was talking a few days ago about a job I once had, teaching retarded adults to do janitorial work. The first task, and the hardest, was to take each simple job and break it down into a number of tiny steps. We would then take the trainee through all the steps, but would only assess their progress on the first. Once they mastered that, we would evaluate the seconds. And so on. Very, very slowly teaching them how to empty trashcans or clean a bathroom or vacuum a courthouse.
And that is how the left is training America to be socialist. Or at least to accept authoritarianism.
Let me take a non-economic example. Smoking. The anti-smoking forces did not come out and say they wanted to ban smoking. They first asked for warning labels. Then age restrictions. Then voluntary no smoking areas. Then mandatory no smoking areas. Then an increase int he age limit. Then no smoking on domestic flights. Then all flights. Then a law suit against the tobacco companies. Then no smoking indoors, except bars and restaurants. Then increased taxes. Then an even higher smoking age. Then ban smoking in bars and restaurants. And so on and so on. Step by step they managed to take what was seen as a harmless activity and attached so much opprobrium that smokers are seen as being worse than child molesters and cannibals.
And the same pattern has been followed int he socializing of the economy. Starting way back in the Wilson administration with the income tax, or perhaps earlier with the antitrust laws, the federal government has gradually taken on ever more power and taken an increasingly active part in managing the economy.
You can see it continuing today. Obama is not calling for nationalization. he isn't even calling for universal health care per se. He just wants to "make sure every American is insured". It is another step toward the government controlling all health care, but it is a modest step. The left is willing to take one step at a time in order to reach their goal.
The right is not patient. At least not any more.
Back when we were in the wilderness, from the long reign of FDR until Reagan came to power, we were patient. We were happy to slow down the rush to the left. We were happy to make some modest gains. Even during the Reagan administration we were not overly ambitious. Reagan made great strides, but he did not overreach, and we recognized the limitations placed upon him.
Today, we lack that patience. We hear it in those who decry McCain. Rather than accept that McCain is not a pure conservative, that he would only serve to hold back the forces pushing us leftward, or maybe only slow them, they say "let the flood come" and refuse to vote for him. Their plan is that we must have a "true conservative" or nothing.
Had the left adopted such a plan, they would have nothing right now. Had they said they wanted only "true liberals" and run outright socialists from day one they would have never made any progress on their goals. They wisely hid their agenda, or offered a watered down version, confident that they could build on the groundwork the less than doctrinaire socialists built. They knew to run outright socialists would be suicide.
Yet that is precisely what conservatives are proposing, pushing a far right candidate voters will reject, and threatening to sit out the election unless we adopt this losing strategy over and over again.
I have
said it before, but we as a people need to
learn patience once again.