The Daily Plunge

The rhetoric from the so-called Progressive left has become progressively poisonous. It is difficult to fathom that one would write or say, let alone think, the disgusting, profane things said and written by leftists about conservatives, particularly conservative women and minorities.

Palin and Bachman are evil bitches and C words, held up as effigies of a particularly degrading form of politicized propaganda. Black conservatives are Uncle Toms who have somehow betrayed their race, simply because they think their race is better than the condescending white guilt that treats them as if they were idiotic children.

This dehumanizing objectification has become the defining tactic of the left; there is no logical defense available for leftist ideology, thus it sinks to the lowest depths of depravity to make its point, such as it is.

When fascism comes to America it will be driving a Prius with a COEXIST bumper sticker.

Witness the Tweets Henshaw regurgitates here in all their glory, and then the righteous indignation, accompanied by profanity and insults, when the Tweeter finds their Tweet at The Daily Plunge. Also witness the commentary on leftist sites like Daily Kos and The Huffington Post. Offensive comments are not relegated to the left side of the blogosphere, but the sheer volume of mean-spirited, ugly commentary is somewhat shocking.

Then again, maybe this is not so shocking. Years ago as an idealistic college student I was attracted to liberalism based on its professions of tolerance and open mindedness. Enthusiasm soon dissolved into disillusionment.

Oddly enough, one of my epiphanies came during an MTV News report on a pro-choice concert headlined by the Red Hot Chili Peppers. It was rather jarring to me that a rock band with a fairly large collection of misogynist songs in its repertoire would be “pro woman.” Then it dawned on me that being pro-choice is not pro-woman at all. It’s another way to degrade women and to tell them that they’re too stupid and immoral to make a right choice before conception.

For some reason, the left embraces an ideology that basically says we’re not much better than animals, and thus need to be treated as such. This is one of the founding principles of the Progressive movement, from its early years as it dabbled in eugenics to its modern-day insistence that man is not a special creation, endowed by his creator with certain inalienable rights.

This is an important area of separation between right and left. If rights are endowed by the creator, government has no real right to either grant them or take them away. However, if rights are endowed by your fellow man, they become arbitrary and subject to the whims of those in power. Moreover, if I am endowed by my creator, I have individual worth, regardless of my views. But if I am just another animal, a parasite on Mother Earth, then it’s easier to make me one of “them” and thus expendable.

Ultimately, what I found was that liberalism was neither tolerant nor open-minded. In fact, liberalism, in its post-modern sense, is not liberal at all; it is totalitarian. This becomes increasingly clear as one samples the vast media landscape of leftist voices, from the anonymous comments at The Daily Kos to the rants of Bill Maher, Jon Stewart, Keith Olbermann, Janeane Garofalo, et al.

They do not respectfully disagree; they demonize anyone who disagrees with them. They aim to take away the very humanity of their opponents, an ancient and effective means of politics that has sometimes led to genocide.

This is yet another reason I believe in limited government. I do not want to be subject to the whims of people who hold such contempt for others in their heart, a contempt that borders on inhumanity. The great massacres of the 20th Century were perpetrated largely by dehumanizing and degrading those being murdered so that the majority of people would simply look away as the atrocities were committed.

The defining characteristic of genocidal regimes is that all real power is concentrated in the central State; all else is subordinate. While I’m obviously concerned about the totalitarian leanings of the left, someone on the left may be concerned about a theocracy. Fair enough, but all of us, left and right, should advocate for a limited federal government because when all power resides in the federal government, we’re all screwed.