The Ironic Truth Of Progressive Liberalism

I hope a lot of liberals, especially the more progressive liberals, read and consider the points I'm going to make here. I was born and have spent most of my life living in Barney Frank's district. He has, unfortunately, been the congressman representing this district longer than I've been alive, (elected in 1980, first term began in '81, I was born in '82). Conservatives who read that might think it's somewhat of an unfortunate curse. I in fact think it's been more of a blessing.

One thing I have here is no shortage of liberals to challenge my conservatism to it's core. I've learned much from my conversations, (more like debates), with those who consider themselves liberals. The constant challenge I get here has meant that I've had to be very sure about where I stand and why. Being in such a liberal district in such a liberal state has actually made me into a sharper, more knowledgeable conservative. That in itself is rather ironic and that type of irony is what I'd like to discuss here.

Like I said I've learned much about liberals and I'm going to show you some things that I'd like you to consider regarding where liberals stand on various issues. I hope a lot of liberals read this because I'd love them to try and say where I have this wrong. Everyone who reads this should really think about the points I make here and ask themselves how any of this makes sense.

Regardless of which side of the aisle you are on these are arguments that you should think about. If you don't agree with me that's fine. This is still America and differing opinions speaking out without fear is one of the greatest, (and too often forgotten rarest), freedoms that we have here. Let's get to the issues, I'll start with something nice and controversial; abortion and the death penalty.

It's no big secret that I oppose abortion. The typical pro-choice argument against those like me who are pro-life is that we don't respect women's rights. Cases of rape are the standard line of attack from the pro-choice crowd against the pro-life crowd. I've always found it fascinating that this is the same group that is often softest on crime when it comes to rapists. I fall into the lock them up for 20 years to life and throw away the key crowd, while it's the more liberal among us who fight for rehabilitation and softer punishment.

Case after case deals with a repeat offender and each time they are shown leniency and let back out onto the streets they in many cases repeat the crimes and finally get a tough sentence when they cross the line and end up murdering someone. The same crowd that fights to be lenient on these criminals are the ones trying to convince you that it's those who want to be stricter on the criminals that don't care about women's rights.

As it relates to the abortion argument and capital punishment I find it fascinating that the pro-choice crowd often fights so hard to save the lives of convicted violent criminals whom we know are guilty, yet they don't lift a finger and even go after those of us who try and make a stand for those whom we know are innocent, unborn babies. Remember the fight to save Tookie Williams. The pro-choice crowd couldn't wait to defend Tookie against the evil death penalty but if you make a stand for a baby who has clearly done no wrong regardless of the means of conception then you're the one who doesn't care.

We often hear the argument about what if we execute someone who is actually innocent. Fair enough point but not really relevant in today's context. Have you seen any of the TV shows detailing modern forensics? TruTV's forensic files being among the best. If you commit a crime worthy of the death penalty, and few crimes are, the things that are done to make sure we have the right criminal are downright amazing. This gives far less of a chance that a person who is in fact innocent ends up on death row. It'd be nice to see those who claim to stand for mercy and rehabilitation fight as hard for those whom nobody can deny are innocent, babies.

The next issue I'd like to discuss is the poor. The key to progressive liberals arguments relate to making everyone a special interest group and then try to paint yourself as a hero for that group. Here are a few of the groups that liberals claim to be the heroes of, minorities, elderly, poor, homosexual, the planet, the children, and on and on and on.

This is key to Liberals but before we really get into it I'd like to say something I've learned from local liberals that I've talked to. The average liberal, not the political exploiter but the average run into you at the supermarket liberal, does honestly believe that they care about the special interest groups listed above. The average everyday liberal honestly thinks that liberals are the best fit for helping those various groups. The problem is that the intentions, and most average everyday liberals do in fact have good intentions, are often the only thing that matters and the results, which are the only thing that should matter, aren't acknowledged.

The welfare state was intended to use the government to help the poor, that's the feel good initial intention. The reality is it created what is now generations of government dependency, not help....dependency, and it has actually increased rather than decreased poverty. Folks like Barney Frank, whose district is literally falling apart, (I know because I live here), love to claim they are fighting for the poor.

The problem is that they fail to acknowledge that the policies they promote are often the reason you ended up in poverty in the first place. As long as they can convince you they care then they will be rewarded by the very people they are letting down with their misguided policies all because rather than looking at the actual results of the actions taken by these do-gooders their supporters simply believe that they care about them. That's all it takes in some places to secure the votes.

Perhaps it's just a guilty conscience. Politicians caused the housing bubble by pushing subsidized housing and helping people who couldn't afford a house buy one. Once again, good intentions, get poor people houses. Fannie Mae had one such program called an interest only or interest first loan. It worked like this, for the first 15 years you paid only interest taxes and insurance, thus building no equity in the home for half the life of the 30 year mortgage.

After 15 years the mortgage doubled in order to get the full loan paid in the 30 year time frame. The logic for this is that over 15 years you're expected to make more money through pay increases etc. over time. But what happens if in that 15 year time frame you end up losing your job, seeing a decrease in pay due to a recession etc? I'll tell you what happens, you end up unable to afford your mortgage doubling, you have no equity in the home, and you lose the house. See how this works? Good intentions, bad results, typical case of progressive liberalism.

The best part is that once it all falls apart all of the politicians, regardless of party just line up to point the finger at the other guy. While there's plenty of blame to go around on average that's not what elections are about. Obama's getting hammered at the moment because the economy still sucks despite all of the promises that massively increasing our government spending and debt would solve the problem.

We often hear about how those who oppose gay marriage but support civil unions, like myself, are oppressive against homosexuals. Did you know that minorities, blacks in particular are the reason gay marriage failed when brought to the voters back in '08 in the extremely liberal California?

"That said, African-American opposition to gay marriage and gay civil unions is not new. In an ABC News/Washington Post poll in late 2007, blacks opposed gay civil unions by 58-36 percent. (Whites were in favor, 55-41.) In earlier polling we've done on gay marriage, blacks have been even more broadly opposed, 66-31 percent."

How come we don't see the liberals complaining about African-Americans being oppressive against the civil rights of homosexuals? The answer is simple, African-Americans are also one of the groups that liberals depend on and exploit for votes. It makes more political sense to blame the failure of gay marriage whenever it's brought to the voters on some vast "right-wing conspiracy" leg by a bunch of evil homophobe conservatives than to face reality and risk alienating a special interest group they are so dependant on for votes.

The more immediate target for the liberals at the moment are the elderly. With the baby boomer senior citizens this is a massive group of voters that no politician can win without. Enter the current mediscare tactics being used to scare senior citizens about the Paul Ryan plan. Even though the one true scary fact is that we know various social welfare programs, (social security, medicare, medicaid, etc.), are in fact headed for bankruptcy. That's not a scare tactic it's a scary fact period.

Liberals are attacking Paul Ryan's plan and even using Newt Gingrich's criticism against it. That would be fine if they had an alternative but the truth is that they don't. They accuse Republican supporters of the Ryan Plan of wanting to destroy Medicare, remember that the elderly poor are another special interest group the left want to exploit through scare tactics for votes, meanwhile Obamacare actually did cut Medicare by $500 billion dollars and the left couldn't wait to defend it.

Let me play devil's advocate with Paul Ryan's plan for just a moment by asking you something. Have you read the bill? In truth I haven't. I did in fact read hundreds of pages of Obamacare before they pulled the bill offline out of fear of overexposure. The mistake I see Republicans and Conservatives making with the Ryan plan is that we are blindly following and trusting it simply because it's a Republican plan.

How does that make many of us any better than those who blindly followed Obamacare simply because it was a left wing plan written by Democrats? In truth it doesn't make us any better and I can't blindly trust the Ryan plan I haven't read if I myself criticized Obamacare supporters for the very same thing. Perhaps those on the right who are criticizing folks like Newt Gingrich for not getting in line behind the Ryan plan should remember that. Try reading the bill yourself. After all, if you support the Ryan plan simply because he says you should then you really can't criticize those on the left who supported Obamacare.

In truth I don't know if the Ryan plan is great or not but I can at least give him credit for addressing the very real issue at stake. While the liberals play the typical shoot the messenger without offering an alternative game that they've played countless times before.

Want an example? Fine, remember when President Bush tried to address the Social Security issue in his second term?

"Democrats say that Bush is misleading the nation on the nature of the problems Social Security faces"

This is the same thing isn't it? What have the Democrats proposed as a fix to the Social Security problem. The answer...nothing, in fact in many cases they continue to refuse there's even a problem at all. Remember this?

It's ironic that President Obama gave the country such a belief in hope. He was the guy who was going to heal America's image and repair our friendships with ally nations. Yet on his watch the middle east is only becoming more anti-American and dangerous than ever.

He was the guy who was going to save us from President Bush's bad economy and crushing debt. Yet on his watch the economy has only gotten, and continues to get, worse. At the same time he has quadrupled Bush's evil debt and expects you to give him a pass.

He was going to realize Martin Luther King Jr's, (whose father was a life long Republican), vision of true equality for all. Yet, the social divide from rich and poor, as well as minority groups have only gotten worse.

President Obama was going to heal the environment, yet the worst oil spill in history, as well as uncommon tornadoes etc. have been happening on his watch. It seems the more arrogant your promises, the more god will humble you.

President Obama seemed like a blessing to the Liberal Democrats yet his agenda led to the biggest political ass kicking in an election cycle, (2010), since the 1930's. That is the ironic truth of Progressive Liberalism.

Perhaps you think I've gotten something wrong in this post. Feel free to explain where I have it wrong with a comment. I enjoy the debate, I get plenty of practice living where I do. I think most who read this will instead see that it makes a lot of sense. At least it does to me. If you see things differently, that's fine, that's what it means to live in the land of the free. I've made my case as clear as I can. If you think I'm just part of some "right wing conspiracy" it's ok with me. I heard worse and I'm not going to lose any sleep over it. I think most who read this will instead think that I'm onto something here and the real conspiracy lies with those who will attack me for it.