[Clemenza]

This article was written by a friend of mine and published (in shorter form) at Liberty Magazine back in February 2001. He asked me to post this as it still applies today.

[freedomlover]

There is nothing naive about liberalism.

Liberals want power. To get power they need votes.

It's quite simple really. First they get 51% of the public dependent on some type of "goodies".

Then all they need to do is to convince 51% of the public that they must vote for the liberal (Dem) or their goodies will be taken away.

Terribly simple.

[Rytwyng]

btt

[ExpandNATO]

Your friend needs to actually read James Burnham's "Suicide of the West." Nothing idealistic or naive about the liberalism portrayed in his book.

Essentially, Burnham contends the function of liberalism is to be a painkiller while the Western world is destroyed by three forces: criminality/terrorism within, Communist aggression without and Third World radicalization within and without.

Liberalism's function is to enable its believer to say with a straight face that it does not matter that control of the Suez canal was grabbed by Egypt from England or that crime is rampant or that some country is threatened by a communist takeover or in a modern context that Palestinian suicide bombers are attacking Israel daily. Every loss is explained as essentially being the Western world's fault for supporting colonialism, racism, oppression, reactionary regimes, etc., etc.

Still worth a read, though in the modern context the Communist nations seem to have simply become Third World radicals.

[Seeking the truth]

Well written. Thanks for posting.

[Mike Fieschko]

One of the greatest sources of liberal strength is the infusion of money from the taxpayer. The federal grant process is used to divert money to organizations that are nothing but leftwing advocacy groups, and at last report the Left was getting $400 million of your money every year. The very first goal of the conservative movement must be to eliminate,completely, down to the very last penny, all public funds going to the Left. This will decrease the strength of the Left, and make subsequent moves easier.

Newt had the opportunity to do this, and correct me if I'm wrong, the attempts raised howls of pain and protest from the Left. I guess when the nation descended into anarchy (i.e., the Federal government shut down), the attempts were abandoned.

I suspect that $400 million is underestimating it.

[Fish out of Water]

Great article and "Liberty" is a very good magazine.

[Free the USA]

Good Post
thanks for the ping
FYI

[Red Jones]

bump

[week 71]

Good read

[NittanyLion]

The conclusion from these facts is that liberalism is really driven not by ideology but by self-interest. Let us call this the Self-Interest Critique of Liberalism. It has been mentioned only occasionally by conservatives, and then usually only by implication. The Naive Ideology Critique does not explain why liberals have continued to espouse their old, tired big-government "solutions" to social problems long after even liberals themselves recognize these are abysmal failures, but the Self Interest Critique does. Liberals continue to advocate bigger government as the cure for all ills because they benefit financially from it.

The Self Interest Critique does not say that sincere belief is not present in the liberal movement - it is, especially among the many followers within the movement, but that the real insiders of the liberal movement, the Core Liberals, are motivated primarily by their financial interest. Yes, ideas have consequences, but so do material interests. The Core Liberals are perhaps not all aware that this is their true motivation. The human capacity for denial, for rationalization, for self-deception is practically infinite. Everyone is always swayed at least unconsciously by personal benefit. The Core Liberals genuinely believe that their policies are good for the country - but they have convinced themselves of this to alleviate the cognitive dissonance between the suspicion that liberalism is in fact bad for the country, and their drive to magnify their self-interest.

This passage sounds as though it could come from the pages of Atlas Shrugged. I agree with it wholeheartedly.

[GeronL]

whoa, I'll copy and read offline later. Thanks

[Bigun]

GREAT Post!