On Townhall.com on December 5th, Burt Prelutsky wrote a brilliant article on what liberals are and what they believe.  One paragraph, in particular, struck me because it was in response to the charge by those self-same liberals that conservatives (Mr. Prelutsky in particular) resort to name-calling instead of dealing with real issues.

 

 

In that paragraph, Mr. Prelutsky has defined pretty well most of the things that are so wrong with liberalism and liberals.  For one other thing that irks some of us, they seem to insist on redefining themselves.  Now that they've caused the word "liberal" to become such a pejorative, they've decided on calling themselves "Progressives."  I predict that it won't be long before "progressive" is equally disreputable. 

 

In psychiatric circles, there's something called "projection."  Simply defined, its the practice of attributing to others one's own thoughts and motivations--especially to one's opponents or philosophic "enemies."  In my few decades of observing the political scene, I've been struck by how often projection is practiced by liberals...particularly that variety to be found in the Democrat Party, the far-left blogosphere, Hollywood, the so-called "mainstream media" and the Soros-funded 527's like "Media Matters," "The Daily Kos" or the grossly misnamed "People for the American Way."  Each of these groups' favorite pejorative vis a vis conservatives is "hate" or "hate speech."  The "hate" to which they are referring is usually merely opposition to their philosophies or agendae and very often contains truth and facts instead of the left's favorite rationale for their behaviors..."feelings."  For REAL "hate" one has only to log onto one of their websites.

 

Dr. Thomas Sowell once described Hollywood as "operating continually within a 'fact-free zone.'"  He was dead-bang right, but I'd expand that theory to include all of the left-wing side of politics.  Most conservatives of my acquaintance, and even most of the talk-radio types who fancy themselves spokespeople for conservatism, are anything BUT "hate-filled" or even hateFUL.  Unless, of course, one considers their sometimes virulent antipathy towards the decadence that IS what passes for liberal "thought" to constitute "hate."

 

Let's explore a few examples of what the left considers to be "hate."

 

Conservatives are completely at a loss as to why the left is perfectly willing--even eager--to permit--even encourage--a woman to kill a completely innocent, unborn child for "convenience," yet profess often violent opposition to the State taking the lives of the human waste that are the psychopathic murderers among us--especially after they've been given access to the most defendent-friendly legal system on the planet.  It simply doesn't make sense to celebrate the death of an innocent baby but abhor the death of a child rapist who then tortures and murders his victims.  Yet, liberals consider those trying to prevent the former or who support the latter to be "hate-filled religious zealots, trying to 'impose' their religion on everyone else."  No.  They are people who believe that innocent life is worth saving and that murderers and other, vicious predators should be removed from society forever and the only certain way of doing that is to put them to death.  My opinion is that this should be done in the PRECISE manner that they committed their crimes, but I don't imagine that'll ever become vogue.  However, if one opposes abortion on demand for any (or no) reason, the left thinks you're "hate-filled."  Huh? 

 

Conservatives generally oppose ILLEGAL immigration--by ANY group, by the way.  Not just Hispanics.  The left has intentionally misapplied that opposition to be anti-immigration... period.  Nothing could be further from the truth.  Just another example of how the left routinely lies about conservative philosophy in general, of course, aided and abetted by the so-called "Mainstream Media" (the MSM) who are prone to parroting the talking points of the left and utterly ignoring the protestations of conservatives to the contrary.  This has been so effective that the general perception of a large percentage of Americans who get the bulk of their information FROM the MSM is that conservatives--and, by extension, the GOP--are "anti-immigrant."   They are not.  Conservatives have long understood that UNCONTROLLED immigration is the path to disaster for this country.  We MUST know who is entering, for what purposes, and the general state of their physical and economic health.  Otherwise, we're seeing outbreaks of virulent diseases which have been largely eradicated in the U.S., massive, and unsustainable, additions to the welfare systems, and an influx of people who are educationally and constitutionally unable to support either themselves or their families and who will inevitably turn to criminality to survive.  That's NOT to say that all illegal aliens will become dope dealers, armed robbers or a drain on the economy, but the odds are MUCH higher that they will or that they will be exploited by the unscrupulous among us to their own detriment.  Already, illegal aliens have forced the closure of hospitals in southern California because of their penchant for using ERs to take care of head colds and minor cuts and bruises and then just walking away without paying.  Already, we've seen illegal alien children overwhelm public schools--mostly because illegals don't pay much in the way of taxes designed to support those same schools.  Hispanic illegals are unlike any other group of immigrants ever to seek opportunity and freedom in the United States.  They adamantly refuse to assimilate into the manstream and unique American culture, preferring instead to import THEIR culture here and require US to accommodate them...especially in language.  Recently, a popular Hispanic comedian told a joke to his audience in Spanish, then turned to the cameras and said, "For those of you who don't speak Spanish.......LEARN!"  This is a common attitude, especially in the SW United States where Hispanics, both legal and illegal, constitute a near majority of local populations.  Conservatives oppose both the attitude and the mindset that somehow Hispanics are "entitled" to infiltrate the United States because they somehow feel the establishment of U.S.-Mexican borders is illegitimate. 

 

The 2006 "Comprehensive Immigration Reform" bill was defeated in Congress--in large measure because conservatives were outraged by its amnesty-for-illegals provisions and made themselves abundantly clear to members of Congress.  The ensuing protests by Mexicans--both illegal and legal--especially in southern California showed where these peoples' loyalties really lie.  The marches and protests initially were under massed Mexican flags...until someone told the protesters that was a bad PR move and the Mexican flags were replaced the second day with U.S. flags instead.  However, the fact that their initial instinct was to display Mexican flags is telling.  Drive through any barrio in Los Angeles or San Diego and you'll not be able to keep count of the number of homes flying or displaying the Mexican flag or the number of cars bearing Mexican flag replicas on their bumpers or in the rear windows.   

 

Conservatives recognize that LEGAL immigration is both desirable and very beneficial to the country and encourage it.  However, we also realize that America's resources are finite and we cannot be the dumping ground for everyone desiring to come here--especially, in these days, those wanting to come here to do us material harm.  Therefore, we MUST control immigration.  We do this by establishing both quotas and basic criteria for admission.  Any sane country MUST do this and almost all do.  Those few who do NOT are discovering that they regret not doing it.

 

Liberals seem constitutionally unable to understand basic human nature.  Everything that "the government" subsidizes--poverty, in particular--INCREASES proportional to the level of subsidy.  The more money given in assistance, the more people mysteriously migrate into "poverty" to qualify for it.  The more money paid per child for single mothers, the more children are born to single mothers.  The more "the government" pays medical costs through Medicare and Medicaid, the more people wind up drawing Medicare and Medicaid and the fewer employer-provided medical benefits are available. 

 

The general attitude of the left seems to be that all money belongs to the government and it's up to the government to see that the nation's wealth is "equitably divided" among us.  Obama sort of let this cat out of the bag when he chided Joe the Plumber that he should not object to "sharing the wealth" through paying higher taxes.  Where this attitude comes from is anyone's guess.  Conservatives believe that wealth belongs to those that have earned it (or, through inheritance, to the progeny of those who've earned it ) and that taxes should be limited to only enough to operate the constitutional functions of government and NEVER for social engineering, behavior modification or for income redistribution and that taxes should be paid by EVERY citizen of the United States (and those doing business IN the United States) proportional to their income--most fairly, by people paying a specific percentage of their income in taxes--the fixed-rate tax.  The so-called "progressive" tax rate in use today has created a situation where the bottom 50% of taxpayers, in terms of their annual, reported incomes, pay less than 3% of the income taxes paid to the various levels of government and the top 5% of income earners pay almost 75% of the income taxes paid to the government.  Yes, when income tax CUTS are discussed, liberals complain that those paying the bulk of taxes receive the bulk of the cuts, calling them "tax cuts for the rich."  Conservatives simply cannot understand the illogic of "lowering taxes" for people who pay NO taxes, but liberals simply love the idea of tax "rebates" for the poor...who, because of their respective incomes pay NO income taxes.  How can you "rebate" a tax that hasn't been paid in the first place?  The answer is that you can't and such schemes on the part of the left are part and parcel of their overweening desire to redistribute the nation's wealth by taking from the tax payers and giving the money to those who don't pay taxes.  In short, it's just another welfare scheme, mostly designed to curry favor and buy votes to keep liberals in positions of political power and control.