Liberals Tolerate Liberals--and, That's About All

This begins the first entry by Liberty Dog.

For as long as I can remember, the left side of the spectrum has been devoid of new ideas. I guess that they have just become so comfortable recycling the threadbare ideas of Marx and Ingles that they have, in their own minds, reached the apex of economic and political thought. This is, of course, unfortunate because as such notions are propagated, useful skills such as critical thought are abandoned.

However, at some point one new realization did manage to ooze its way up through the miasma of leftist thought: the largest portion of the American public will not accept these ideas on their face. Therefore, it became necessary to dress them up and obfuscate the consequences of these ideas in order to push them into the public domain. That is when leftists embarked on a campaign of lexicon transmogrification. Words such as "liberal" were co-opted from the classical liberals to be used as part of effort to make stale lines of thought more palatable to the masses. When "liberal" started leaving a bitter taste in people's mouths, "progressive" was adopted as its ideological offsping.

In addition to morphing words for their own ends, leftists started taking cues from Madison Avenue and put buzzwords to use. Today's bucket-o-buzz contains such gems as "reality based community," "multi-culturalism," and "the party of tolerance." Though the humor of the first term is self-evident, it is the last that always makes me chuckle. I laugh because when I hear the word "tolerance" I always think of its base word "tolerate." Tolerate, as leftists proclaim themselves to be using it, means To recognize and respect (the rights, beliefs, or practices of others). Tolerate, as actually practiced by leftists, means To put up with; endure.

By claiming the use of the first definition, leftists are free to wallow in their own self-righteousness. In reality (except the "reality" of the "reality based community") leftist are merely putting up with the various groups they feign concern for in order to get their support come election time. This becomes blatantly obvious when you look at the ideas and programs put forth by the left for the benefit of these groups. Programs such as affirmative action do not show respect for minorities, they are condescending insults that say to a person, "Look, we know that you are incapable of competing on your own merits and abilities, therefore we will make things easier for you."

While there are undoubtedly a great many proponents of such measures who are ignorant of the backhanded racism they are practicing, I have to believe that this is such a blatant slap in the face to those it is supposed helps, those advocating them must be aware of it. You better believe the minorities it is directed at understand it for what it really is, but like any other beneficiary of pork accept it as long as the benefits keep coming. People, like water and electricity, tend to take the path of least resistance when seeking to achieve a goal.

The question that all this leaves me asking is why. Why have those on the right allowed those on the left to play such word games and why are so many reticent to call these leftist ideas what they really are: racist, regressive and condescending? My guess is that even though a majority of Americans are not buying what the leftists are selling when they step into the voting booth, the leftists have been fairly successful at perpetuating their myths in the public arena, leaving those on the right afraid of being called mean-hearted, uncaring, or even racist if they dare speak out against leftist policies. Of course, like all fears, the only way to overcome it is to face it head on.

Authored by Liberty Dog