a conservative:
See, I am a historical empiricist. I want the things that, in the past, have been shown to work well.
Leftists are rationalists, who are convinced by a “beautiful” theory and thus ignore the lessons of history. But they really are not strongly rooted in the observable data.
We are not the same…
I am a New Deal Democrat. THAT is something I never knew…
Democrats LOVE abortion so much?
I really don’t get it. You wouldn’t think that they would go so ga-ga over infanticide.
But you would be wrong…
I think that abortion reveals the scummy underbelly of the hard Left. THAT is why it HAS to be an unquestioned and usually unexamined shibboleth of the Left. Because if you start examining THAT…
Let’s just say that it would mean that you had stepped out of the Lefty “circle of safety.”
And abortion on demand for any reason even after the birth has become the mark of the beast Lefty identity. And therefore groveling obeisance must be paid! ALL Lefties who are part of that “tribe” HAVE TO make a deep curtsy to that abomination! Or they are no longer “in the club.”
in political philosophy is the one of moral agency. Should you force people to do what (you think) is good? Or do you accept the tragic “dings” and general messiness that inevitably come along with moral agency?
Yeah, if there IS moral agency, there WILL be “dings” and messiness.
Because it [moral-agency-focused governance] cannot do some evil it is prevented from doing some good. Shall we, then, forego the good to prevent the evil, or shall we submit to the evil to secure the good? This is the fundamental practical question of all constitutionalism.
See, Leftism promises a world without illness, harm, cuts, bruises, or “dings.” They prefer to submit to evil in order to secure what they think is good. But obviously, the rulers (even if benevolent) can ONLY do that if they have complete control over people. And know everything.
Yes, the fundamental issue is moral agency, and it has been from time immemorial. A promise to make everyone do the right thing is very seductive, and always has been. It gains a lot of supporters–and it cloaks itself in benevolence (though of an infantilizing sort).
A promise to allow people to do as they want as long as they are not actively harming others is both effective and a tough sell. Moral agency is not “sexy” like a promise of fairies and unicorns is.
But of course, there actually ARE no fairies and unicorns…
Democrats have gone nuts! Sensible people just won’t cotton to such crapola.
In the past, one could be both sensible and a Democrat. But those days are pretty much gone. You get some who call themselves Democrats out of a wistful memory of the past, but the modern party, if examined at all, quickly disabuses a moral and thinking person of such mushy-headed thinking.
you this for a while, now.
We know that historically, when two sides get a certain distance apart in terms of morality, they split. The two groups CAN just no longer stay united. So the split is both natural and inevitable.
Now Federalism was designed from the get-go to help mitigate this known problem. And Conservatives have long looked to Federalism. Leftists, on the other hand, are FAR less disposed to “live and let live.” See, Lefty political philosophy precludes that approach. No, for real Lefties it is all about control, force, and dominion.
It’s NOT a long-term viable mix.
In my often-cited example, when there was just a trickle to straddle at first, it could be easily done. And in the 1970s it was a viable response.
But the water has gone from a trickle to a small ditch. Then to a big ditch. Then to a canal. And now it is a raging whitewater river. The time is here when you can no longer straddle–you can’t stay in the “mushy middle” because that is quickly becoming not a place at all! There ARE no more “blue dogs,” see? Name a SINGLE “moderate” Democrat currently in office. You can’t.
You can be hot or cold, but not lukewarm.
saying this over and over—for years!
Of course, Federalism is antithetical to Leftism, and THAT is why we are in such a mess right now. The Founding Fathers solved this problem for us, but WE screwed it up!
Or more accurately, the Left screwed it up and people went bleatingly along with stupid ideas that had a patina of rationality. These bad ideas have been insidious.
in one photo:
are as slow as an 80-year-old man stuck in the molasses of last-century political thought.
Coincidentally…
who didn’t know that?
If someone subscribes to the NY Times and yet claims to be “a moderate,” you know they are lying through their teeth! Don’t be snookered by these charlatans.
On Friday’s broadcast of HBO’s “Real Time,” host Bill Maher stated that contributors at The New York Times criticizing the paper’s coverage of transgender issues shows that The New York Times is “a very woke newspaper” and the newsroom “is not a balanced place.”