See the Left’s thinking. It might be our future.

Larry Kummer, Editor

7 years ago

Summary: Seeing a movement in all its social and politic dimensions is difficult. These snippets of Leftists’ thinking – some fun, some terrifying – can give you a feel for what might be America’s future.

Dazzled by the sight of our glorious revolutionary future!

ID 104953755 © Andrea Pittori | Dreamstime.

(1) The Left hates America’s history

Bien pensant Leftist critics are appalled at the new film Midway (see the trailer). It accurately portrays the incredible courage of the American pilots, which they consider unrealistic. Worse, it fails to describe both sides as morally equivalent. America refused to sell high-grade oil to Japan to fuel its invasion of China. Therefore Japan was justified in its sneak attack on Pearl Harbor. To a good Leftist, Q.E.D.

Rachel’s Reviews gives us a nice example of such thinking.

“It feels like something John Wayne or Charlton Heston would have been in the 50s and 60s. The problem is this is 2019 and such a jingoistic approach feels woefully outdated and simplistic. …There’s even a scene where a captured soldier tells the Japanese to f-off as he is thrown into the sea on an anchor. Groan!”

The Japanese captured three Navy airmen at Midway: Ensign Wesley Osmus, Ensign Frank O’Flaherty, and Aviation Machinist’s Mate Bruno F. Gaido. They were interrogated, tied to water-filled kerosene cans, and thrown overboard. For more about this, see “Midway: Tarnished Victory” by Robert E. Barde in Military Affairs (December 1993).

(2) The Left abandons multiculturalism

For centuries the Left mocked those who believed in universal definitive values. Multiculturalism was the prescription – belief that tolerance was the supreme rule, with everybody accepting the validity of others’ values assuming that they reciprocate. But now the Left has values that they consider the highest. They call them “human values.” Values asserted, without justification from God or Gods.

Asserting what are the highest values is heady, a kind of unlimited power. Like eating peanuts, it is difficult to stop with just one. For example, let’s judge the relative morality of dolphins and humans!

“Computers Evolve a New Path Toward Human Intelligence Quanta Magazine. I don’t know why human intelligence is so esteemed. It just happens to be the one we know best. Dolphins exhibit a lot of bad human behaviors (young males will capture and rape females, dolphin pods will gang up into bigger groups to raid females) but on the whole they are way more altruistic than humans.”

— Yves Smith at Naked Capitalism.

Yes, dolphins exhibit some human behaviors – including rape and altruism. But I doubt that any researchers have run a comparative analysis of us vs. them.

This is just a fun side excursion. Once in power. Leftists will set rules for your behavior, governing your most personal behavior. How you look at and speak to people. Your jokes, your speech. Kissing, even touching, will become problematic acts. How many children you have. Are there limits to institutions’ regulation of our actions? Probably not when we governed by people who feel empowered to carve Commandments in stone.

(3) Elizabeth Warren makes hubris tangible

Elizabeth Warren plans to radically restructure 18% of the US economy on the basis of some half-baked models – most of which contradicts work of other experts. But even if they all were unanimous about the plan, reliably modeling social and economic changes on this scale is far beyond the current state of the art. It is mad scientist-like experimentation on America. The scale of the unexpected results are certain to be massive. It does not matter what the particulars are. Why would anyone believe this is a prudent action?

As usual with such plans, the details are nuts. The magnitude of the cost savings are delusional. The costs are grossly underestimated. The cuts to payment rates will bankrupt a substantial fraction of the health care industry. A 6% tax on wealth is gigantic, as few assets have an after-tax return that high. It will force tens of millions of American families to give up their current insurance for the uncertainties of a government-run system.

We have been warned. I suggest starting with this: “Warren’s plan to finance Medicare-for-all pushes into dangerous and uncharted territory” by the distinguished economist Lawrence Summers in the WaPo – “Judged relative to gross domestic product, the Medicare-for-all program dwarfs the federal spending hikes of the New Deal and the Great Society.”

Here is why Elizabeth Warren’s health care proposal won’t work. The current system costs two or three times that of our peers’ systems, yet delivers equivalent outcomes. Expansion of US health care coverage is not feasible until our health care system is restructured.

(4) Elizabeth Warren declares war on the economy

Belief in the Climate Emergency – or even the prospect of extinction – is a heady brew for leaders, justifying them to take extreme and extremely bold decisions. That is, to wield power in a reckless manner. As usual, the poor will suffer the most. Rising energy prices – broadening out into inflation – hurts the poor the most.

On my first day as president, I will sign an executive order that puts a total moratorium on all new fossil fuel leases for drilling offshore and on public lands. And I will ban fracking—everywhere.

— Elizabeth Warren (@ewarren) September 6, 2019

Warren has only the vaguest idea of the effects that this will have on the US and global economy. But she believes in acting first, thinking later, and then regreting.