I stumbled on this post over at PowerLine – where they had abstracted an entire post by David Horowitz: “How Republicans can win” that talks about the severe differences in how Conservatives / Republicans view life vs how Progressive / Democrats do. Since Horowitz was heavily involved in the New Left in the sixties, he knows intimately how they think and how they act – and why they are starting to take the rest of us to the political cleaners in their religious zealotry in marching with Obama to “fundamentely transforming America.” For this is no “this way is better / no, that way is” battle we face – as Progressives truly believe that they are in a political Civil War to beat and overthrow the Founders / Constitution vision of Liberty and Freedom in which WE get to decide for ourselves and replace it with the Progressive brand of socialism / “social justice” in which Government will provide for all our needs (er, but never mention the “strings chains attached” to allow that to happen). I have abstracted a few paragraphs that point the major differences (emphasis mine):
…The Democratic Party has been moving steadily to the left since the McGovern campaign of 1972. It is now a party led by socialists and progressives who are convinced that their policies are paving the way to a “better world.”
This vision of moral and social progress has profound consequences for the way Democrats conduct their political battles. Unlike Republicans, Democrats are not in politics just to fix government and solve problems. They are secular missionaries who want to “change society.” Their goal is a new order of society— “social justice.” They think of themselves as social redeemers, people who are going to change the world. It is the belief in a redemptive future that accounts for their passion, and their furious personal assaults on those who stand in their way. When he was president, Bill Clinton once told Dick Morris he had “to understand that Bob Dole” – a moderate Republican – “is evil.” It is the same missionary zeal that allows Democrats to justify a campaign ad accusing a decent man like Mitt Romney of causing the death of a female cancer victim.
This should set the table. Take Zandra Rice-Hawkins, Exec Dir. for Granite State Progress for instance (yes, a major Progressive parachuted in with the Colorado Model supported by major Progressive $$ – no native Live Free or Die in her!).
I can be as nice and as polite as possible and I STILL am nothing but pond scum (or worse). It is rather amusing to see her eyes change colors (and sometimes, shape) as I have just been reduced to saying “Hi Zandra, it’s your favorite racist homophobic bigot – how are you doing today?” given what she has outright called me in the past. Yeah, I gave up trying to ‘reach across the aisle’ to keep my outstretched hand firmly attached to its forearm. We Conservatives who are also folks of faith often say that once you stop believing in God, you’re likely to believe in anything – and Horowitz is right: Progressives have taken politics to the religious zealotry DefCon 5 even as they excorriate us
Republicans see Democrats as mistaken. Democrats see Republicans — whatever their individual intentions and behaviors—as enemies of the just and the good. Republicans have no parallel belief that drives them and their agendas, and no similar cause to despise and hate their opponents.
And make no mistake – Progressives HATE TEA Partiers, Project 9/12ers, Libertarians (and yes, Free Staters) simply because we are MAJOR impediments to them creating their social justice Heaven On Earth in our outlook that folks should be in charge of themselves with their own reason for doing what they want (even as Progressives EVAH cannot admit to themselves how many people they have to hurt, how much private property they have to take, or how many of our Liberty & Freedoms they have to destroy for individuals for a faux vision handed down by Marx).
…The reason the Democrats made Obamacare their priority is because they are social missionaries whose goal is to “fundamentally transform” the United States of America, as Obama warned five days before the 2008 election. Creating a massive new government program that would absorb one-sixth of the economy and make every American dependent on government for his or her health care was the true order of their business. This was a program they saw as a major stepping-stone on the way to the fundamental transformation of American society.
It matters not what WE want, or what the ordinary person wants for themselves – THESE people have it in their heads that it is perfectly acceptable to use the power of Government to forcibly change other peoples’ lives simply because they “know what’s best”. Ask them – how is this any different than a despot or King commanding his subjects “this is how it is gonna be”? You really think they give a rat’s ass what YOU want for you and your family’s well being?
That’s the way progressives think and Republicans had better start understanding just what that means. Progressives are not in politics to tinker with the existing system, although they understand that tinkering and fixing problems along the way gets votes. They are in politics to achieve “social justice” – to transform the system and the way Americans live.
Why do progressives not see that the future they are promoting – with its socialist “solutions” – has already failed elsewhere, and particularly in Europe? Because in their eyes the future is an idea that hasn’t been tried. If socialism has failed in Europe it’s because they weren’t in charge to implement it and there wasn’t enough money to fund it.
“Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”
It is the very grandeur of the progressive ambition that makes its believers so zealous in pursuing it. Through government programs they are going to make everyone equal and take care of everyone in need. They are going to establish social equality and create social justice. It is an intoxicating view and it explains why and how they are different from conservatives. It doesn’t matter to them that the massive entitlements they have created — Social Security and Medicare — are already bankrupt. That can be taken care of by making more wealthy people pay more of their fair share. In their hearts, progressives believe that if they can secure enough money and accumulate enough power they can create a future where everyone is taken care of and everyone is equal. Everything Democrats do and every campaign they conduct is about mobilizing their political armies to bring about this glorious future, about advancing its agendas one program and one candidate at a time. No Republican in his right mind thinks like this.
Simply, they wish to be seen as Ms. & Mr. Nice Guy – even as they will end up being just as tyrannical as Hitler, Mussolini, Stalin, and Mao in trying to achieve it. They simply see themselves as Masters Of The Universe, the new Gods of Olympus and Asgard. How DARE the rest of us ask “er, really”?
The vision of the glorious future puts urgency into their crusades and encourages them to hate their opponents. A Republican like Mitt Romney may be a decent person, but he stands in the way of their impossible dreams. Therefore, he is hateful. The very grandeur of the dream – guaranteed health care for everyone, guaranteed housing for everyone, guaranteed incomes for everyone – is so inspiring it motivates them to seek the promised land by any means necessary. If this requires lying, voter fraud, or demonizing their opponents as racist, selfish and uncaring, so be it. The beautiful ends justify the not-so-beautiful means.
So, be ready fellow Conservative travellers – “making nice” is simply handing them the sword with which to beat you. Read the entire post – it means a shift from merely being factual and logical. Why? As the above paragraph says, there will be no reasoning with these folks – the best is that we beat them into nothingness as that is what they are out to do to us. The only time when they might be seen as being reasonable is when they go for the hudna to try again. And yes, hudna is the right word abstracted from the Islamists – who are also reaching for their own version of Utopia and have realized that hooking up with the American Left is a GREAT idea to kill of the Conservatives – then they will turn on their “useful Lefty idiots” as they have the stronger “religious” reason for victory – and their version of freedom is just the same as the Progressive one.
Yes, Sha’riah Law is just another version of Social Justice – just a different group of Despots in charge.
When Democrats demand free contraceptives and claim that their opponents are conducting a war on women, Republicans shake their heads in disbelief. How could any sane person believe that? The Republicans are missing the point. The issue for progressives is never the issue. The issue is always the transformation of society that they are hoping to achieve. As Sandra Fluke herself put it, the issue of providing free contraceptives is not just about contraceptives, it’s about the whole range of changes that will liberate women (the more government provides for them, the freer they become) and that Republicans oppose.
Get that? “the more government provides for them, the freer they become” is merely FDR’s Second Bill of Rights on steroids – Progressives believe in providing freedom from need and never mention that the Freedom to independently think is not part of their “gift” to never be in want. They believe that if you are materially no longer in need, you won’t care what real freedom is!
Progressives’ hatred for conservatives is thus not a reaction to a particular issue, or a particular slip of the tongue. It is a hatred for what conservatives are. Conservatives are people who believe in limited government. By its very nature, limited government means the death of progressive dreams. In progressive eyes, conservatives and Republicans actually are anti-woman, anti-minority, and anti-poor. Republicans oppose the very idea that government should function as a social savior.
Republicans are reactionary and hateful because they stand in the way of a society that can and should care for every man, woman and child from cradle to grave.
We dismissively talk about the Nanny State. Well, remember what happens when you “slander” the Prophet Mohammed? The Islamists are all about killing you (just ask Fortuyn Pim).
Progressives are all about killing your spirit….or more if you get in the way.
