Posted on 01/24/2014 6:02:57 PM PST by Kaslin
In a recent Washington Post op-ed, left-wing activist Steve Rosenthal sounds a lot like other wishful thinkers arriving at a comfortable partisan conclusion. America, he writes, is only a few years from a full-blown progressive electorate. "A close examination of U.S. attitudes in the past decade-plus," Rosenthal contends, "reveals that the United States is steadily becoming more progressive."
It seems to be widely accepted by the media that demographics, GOP ineptitude and internal division, and a generational shift on social issues place the American voter on an enduring leftward course. Is this inevitable? Well, about as inevitable as Karl Rove's durable Republican majority.
You don't have to be a stickler for academic rigor to appreciate that an 825-word column with a few links to some Gallup polls is not really a "close examination" of anything. But you don't have to be a historian to understand that the electorate, though hardly immune to terrible ideas, is, in the end, stubbornly moderate with little use for philosophical consistency. Which is to say, no one knows what the future will look like.
Voters not only have conflicting ideological views but also change their minds on those issues all the time -- and oftentimes for no good reason at all. We are irrational. We are mercurial. We're irresponsible. And when we're not, events that "change everything" (9/11 and the Great Recession come to mind) tend to blow up these alleged electoral trajectories we're on anyway. And let's not forget voter backlashes, religious awakenings, economic booms and busts, political scandals, charismatic leaders, and technological advances, all of which can disrupt lines on the graph.
That's just broadly speaking, of course. Even if we accepted Rosenthal's facts in the short term, a person could use his piece to make a rather compelling case that the nation is trending more libertarian than it is progressive.
A cultural shift is not always an ideological one -- or at least not always the one you imagine. Our norms are always evolving. Immigration, pot legalization, same-sex marriage and "big business" are the issues that Rosenthal claims portend progressivism's triumph. Yet most of these are only incidentally progressive. Marijuana legalization or support for same-sex marriage is far more likely caused by a growing "live and let live" mindset than it is any burst of leftist idealism. And if the "live and let live" mindset starts bleeding into other areas of American life -- say, education, health care and religious freedom -- the left is in trouble.
In the end, the progressive agenda demands that you trust the state to control economic outcomes -- an idea that is yet to be proved especially popular among Americans. Will it be? Who knows? But right now, what does seem to be growing is skepticism toward government, especially among the young. When Gallup asks about what people "think the most important problem facing this country today is," it doesn't bode well for the left that a plurality of people -- independents, Republicans and Democrats -- say it's government. Fifty-three percent of Americans claim to believe government does "too many things." (Forty percent think its powers should be expanded.) Add to this the fact that according to Gallup, a record number of Americans (42 percent) are rejecting partisan labels and identifying as political independents. Sounds as if there's a growing number of voters with a libertarian disposition -- though most would never articulate it that way.
And right now, the unpopularity and struggles of Obamacare -- the most notable political accomplishment associated with the progressive left -- make it tough to imagine any electorate signing off on another national technocratic adventure in the foreseeable future. The Obamacare debate has made it nearly impossible to do anything in Washington (a triumph for libertarian governance). Judging from the polls, the voters Rosenthal claims are turning hard left seem to be more amenable to supporting reforms that loosen, rather than expand, federal control over health care. What makes anyone believe a more progressive alternative would be popular?
But like many folks on the left, Rosenthal is forced to make a big leap. He contends that a shift on social issues and the electoral success of (a now-unpopular) Barack Obama prove that the entire progressive buffet is destined for widespread approval. Guess what. It doesn't work that way. Support for gay marriage does not mean support for unions. (Unions, one of the backbones of political progressivism, have never been less popular in practice.) Pot legalization does not mean we're ready to nationalize energy policy. And support for immigration reform doesn't mean people are prepared to "make everything owned by everybody" as a writer in Rolling Stone suggests. And though I certainly don't believe we're about to privatize Social Security, to believe that the philosophy of the electorate is on a fixed leftward arc -- which seems to be conventional wisdom these days -- is premature.
I’m not familiar with the author.
His lack of basic political knowledge is astounding.
America has imported 20 million Socialist voters since the Reagan Amnesty in 1986.
The only thing that has kept America “moderate” is poor voter turn out by immigrants and other Hard Left voting blocs.
When those groups have the same turn out as native born whites, the game is up for Conservatives.
America is now a Progressive nation.
The only thing left to determine is how radical it will be.
But values may not be changing despite the fear of statism.
There is currently no prevailing moral compass in leadership, and unfortunately that has a negative impact on society. The trend to libertarianism is a red herring — no one should conclude that’s an improvement except for the singular rejection of statism. We need to see movement towards conservatism which is the Country’s greatest need, and the Left’s greatest nightmare.
It's the same way with politicians who live in DC. Everyone around them is a lib, so the whole country must be. Therefore, they think they need to become more lib so they can get re-elected.
Steve Rosenthal? Neither am I, but then I don't read the Washington Compost.
Or do you mean David Harsanyi? Where have you been? I have posted numerous articles by him from Townhall.com over the years
From Wikipedia: David Harsanyi is an American journalist. He is a nationally syndicated columnist and senior editor at The Federalist. He is a former editor at Human Events and opinion columnist at The Denver Post.[2] His writings on politics and culture have appeared in The Wall Street Journal, Weekly Standard, Washington Post, National Review, Reason, Christian Science Monitor, Jerusalem Post, The Globe and Mail, The Hill, Sports Illustrated Online, and other publications.
Harsanyi's column is nationally syndicated by Creators Syndicate. He is author of Obama's Four Horsemen: The Disasters Unleashed by Obama's Reelection (Regnery) and Nanny State: How Food Fascists, Teetotaling Do-Gooders, Priggish Moralists, and other Boneheaded Bureaucrats are Turning America into a Nation of Children (Doubleday/Broadway).[3] He left his position writing op-eds for The Denver Post to work for Glenn Beck's website, TheBlaze.
“Don’t go there on Monday!”
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Which one? Venezuela if I have diarrhea or Key West without snowshoes?
OK, I’m sorry.
The author is obviously well known and has credibility on political and Conservative issues.
But I still vigorously disagree with his idea that “Americans” are a clearly identifiable group with common goals and common values.
That said, it's a valid analogy. God fills the world full of analogies, including from Old Testament practice. And the "land" that needs to be healed is now in our own hearts, including yours. All of us, including you, need to see the doctor. The garbage man is a secondary concern.
Which... by the way... is why the idea of trying to baptize America at a “social” level failed. What WILL succeed is individual gospel ministry. But sometimes old, even “conservative,” ideas that are not actually godly need to die.
I see the issue as needing a fundamental refactoring.
America, as the whole world, is a scene of spiritual battle.
To see salvation’s flowers bloom and fruits grow in America, we can NOT rely on a political methodology. Not even “conservatism.” If your “conservatism” does not include a heart acceptance and embrace and love of God, then it isn’t any better in the end than a “liberalism” that has the same fault!
It turns out to be historical accident that “liberals” have dropped the God ball worse. “Conservatives” have the ball still, kinda sorta, but they tend too much to pine for a fiat application of God to society. That will not work, and never has during New Testament times (which includes now).
Ok...
Let's try this:
Proverbs 14:34Righteousness exalteth a nation: but sin [is] a reproach to any people.
OK, I see you striving valiantly to make it collective.
However, Christ salvation is individual. You can NOT force it on a people from above. Can NOT.
Not me!
There HAS to be a tipping point SOMEWHERE!
Genesis 18:28
what if the number of the righteous is five less than fifty? Will you destroy the whole city for lack of five people?" "If I find forty-five there," he said, "I will not destroy it."
I’m glad you brought that up, because those who want to compare the USA at large with Sodom are not even CLOSE.
Use Abraham’s own arithmetic, and then get down on your knees to pray for forgiveness before God.
Forgiveness... because you’ve been rooting for the success of the wrong team. You’ve been on Satan’s blaming squad, not God’s praising squad.
Not to mention 25++ million illegal aliens...
Divide the united...
Or the once united..
If it’s on the worldly we must rely, we are fragile indeed.
Somehow a border more porous than today’s was survived in many decades past.
The reason for that was faith and trust and hope in God. At least more of it than today. Call it multiple “sects” if you want, it was still the same God and that is what united what now is flirting with becoming untied.
Now the good news, I think the blessings of the Lord are going to return, but it will not be because we deserved it. It will be because we will have realized there was no other sane choice, and will have made the sane choice. Unto Him.
I really have no idea what your taking about.
HUH?
I see I’m not alone...
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