Aug 18, 2021
THE LEFT ALWAYS WINS LONGTERM, BUT WON'T IN 2022

I hate to say it, but the Left is winning. That fact cannot be ignored, eradicated or canceled, which is what would happen if the Left were losing.

Throughout history the Left has usually been winning. Liberals have become even more liberal, and conservatives even less conservative. There is a continual pendulum: A surge of “Leftist” activity (like now), enactment of “Leftist” initiatives, then a pushback and conservative retrenchment, and then a decade or so later even more liberalism.

Of course, the Left of the past, called “liberals,” does not remotely resemble the Left of the present, called “democratic socialists.” The “Old Left’s” mantra was POWER TO THE PEOPLE. The “New Left’s” mantra is POWER OVER THE PEOPLE. The Old Left viewed government as repressive, and sought liberty and freedom. The New Left views liberty and freedom as dangerous, and wants a benign and benevolent government to repress and suppress all those who disagree with them.

A “liberal” is defined by Webster’s dictionary as someone who is “tolerant of views different from one’s own... favoring societal reforms tending toward democracy and personal freedoms.”
Yeah right, not anymore. Forget that. Or, to be correct, cancel that.

Yesterday’s true liberals are today’s conservatives. And they are marginalized by the Leftist media and academia as a bunch of dim-witted racist capitalists. And yesterday’s conservatives are reviled, dismissed and canceled as a bunch of venal, avaricious Old White Guys who have raped, robbed and pillaged to build America. 

A “progressive” is defined as someone dedicated to “progress...(having) an inclination to more direct action than a liberal...ahead of the times...favoring a fundamental or extreme change of the social structure.”

In my humble opinion the end result of progressivism is authoritarianism. Democracy cannot effect “extreme change” fully or quickly enough. Only an authoritarian government can. And yes, I am well aware that Trump swooned over Putin or Kim Jong-un and other dictators.

History shows that over time the Right always crumbles, and there is never a regression.

Entitlements once given can never be taken away. Beginning with tribal chieftains, feudal warlords and warrior-conquerors, not to mention priest-kings who have fought for two thousand years to achieve the Kingdom of Heaven on Earth, freedom was an anomaly but much-treasured commodity. There were fits and starts - against the oppression of the Right, which meant the Catholic Church, monarchies, military dictatorships, aristocracies. All arrogated power to the few and demanded abject obedience by the many.

Incrementally, dissidence nurtured democracy and thereby capitalism: There were milestones such Martin Luther’s Reformation, Cromwell’s British overthrow of the tyrannical monarchy and land owning aristocracy, and the French and American revolutions. The creation of a bourgeoisie - a business class - eliminated the master/serf division but created a haves/have-nots division, the later being the proletariat (working class).

Then came Karl Marx, a self-proclaimed German philosopher, economist and “social revolutionary.” His Communist Manifesto was a pamphlet published in 1848.

It proclaimed that there would be an ongoing class struggle as long as workers were paid wages and did not share in the means of production. The “oppressive materialistic capitalist class” must be abolished, he wrote, and its history eradicated (that’s called “canceled” nowadays) so it can never be replicated. The victory of the proletariat was “inevitable” and would result in a classless, stateless society. Private property ownership would be forbidden, the Utopian economic system would be based on the bromide “from each according to his ability, to each according to his needs.”

In other words, such human traits as greed, ambition and materialism would be unnecessary. Nobody could have more (or less) than anybody else (that’s called “equity” nowadays, which means identical outcomes for everybody).  Government would then magically disappear, but the commissars of the Communist Party (CP) would be around to insure that nobody got more than “his needs” and nobody worked less than “his ability.”

On paper it was beautiful, in practice it was all a bunch of crap.

The Marxist/Communist experiment failed miserably in the U.S.S.R. (Russia). All comrades lived in equal (but equitable) poverty and misery, absent basic consumer goods due to perpetual scarcities as crop production always faltered, and soaking themselves with vodka to dull the pain. Communism is contrary to human nature: People are and always have been greedy, selfish and materialistic. The Communist Party controlled the state, which controlled the military and the KGB, which suppressed all dissent, and which owned all property. No revolution allowed. Shut up or get shot. Conformity was mandatory.

Communist Party members were the elite: They were less than one percent of the USSR’s population, but they had all the perks - luxury apartments, dachas by the seaside, autos, shopping privileges at the best state-run stores, healthcare and elite education for their kids.

China is a hybrid and has prospered. There is no democracy; there is no tolerance of dissent; the authoritarian Chinese Communist Party (CCP) makes all decision. It is a militaristic police state with a managed capitalist economic system and limited property rights. It is a success story. Its 1.412 billion people, arrayed in 102 cities with populations in excess of 1 million, live in relative prosperity. There is no overt social unrest. There is neither a Marxist nor democratic revolution brewing.

My point is that communistic capitalism is not all that much different from democratic socialism. Government makes the decisions that affect everybody, both personally and economically. And the U.S. Left’s current surge under Biden-Harris, using COVID-19 as the pretext to spend $6 trillion, is ever more transformative. The CDC has become a health politburo, issuing edicts that change weekly, but affect Americans daily.

“Freedom of choice” used to be the Left’s phrase for the right to choose to have an abortion. Now it means non-mask wearers are  dumb fools who don’t know any better. Do as you are told. We have the power. We are not giving it up. A scary notion, considering that we all know that those who get power over people don’t want to relinquish it and it sort of becomes the norm.

Elections have consequences. The Left won federal control in 2020, and they have a limited window to enact their surge - like until early 2022. Omens are plentiful that there is a backlash and that certain issues resonate.

VIRGINIA GOVERNOR: The June Democratic primary was a blowout of the Woke/Left. Former governor Terry McAuliffe (2013-17) won the contest with 62.1 percent, defeating two African-American women who are state legislators and the lieutenant governor, who faced accusations of sexual abuse got 3.6 percent.

The Republican is Glenn Youngkin, a businessman who making the race a referendum on Biden-Harris and stressing school reform (pro-choice and anti-CRT). Trump lost the state by 457,138 votes in 2020 and by 212,030 in 2016. Ralph Northam (D) won for governor by 237,715 votes in 2017. Outlook: Youngkin can win if turnout is low, if the Republican base of 1.9 million is energized, and if the Black turnout is desultory.

NEW YORK CITY MAYOR PRIMARY: The June Democratic primary featured 13 candidates and was conducted under a ranked-choice voting system in which voters marked a 1st, 2nd and 3rd preference among the candidates. The field was uniformly liberal and the early consensus was that the aspirant either most-Leftist or most Centrist would win. That proved accurate.

Those candidates were Maya Wiley, a professor and former civilian police review board chair and Eric Adams, the Brooklyn borough president and 22-year cop. The issues were crime, policing “reforms,” affordable housing, COVID restrictions and closures - and a mad dash to distance themselves from Bill de Blasio, the term-limited mayor. Wiley proposed a $10 billion plan for jobs and housing. Adams promised safe streets. Definitely in the mix were Kathryn Garcia, a former city sanitation and environmental official. Those three got the most “1st” votes. Back in the pack was Andrew Yang, who self-funded over $50 million. Eight rounds of counting/elimination got the vote down to a 404,513-397,316 win for Adams over Garcia, with 50.4 percent.

CALIFORNIA GOVERNOR RECALL: This is 2021’s biggie, and the vote is Sept. 14. Incumbent Gavin Newsom (D) won with 60 percent in 2018, getting about 7,500,000 votes in a 12,500,000 turnout. A total of 2,117,330 recall petition signatures were filed, more than the 12 percent needed.

In a recall, such as 2003’s which installed Arnold Schwarzenegger and ousted Gray Davis, there are 2 questions: (1) Should Newsom be recalled: Yes or No? If so, then (2) who should replace him? There are 46 candidates, the most prominent being radio talk show host Larry Elder, who is running as a Republican. August polls put him at 23 percent.

There is anger in California – over COVID shutdowns, school masking and 2020 closures, water rationing and rampant homelessness. Newsom blundered by not listing his party on the ballot. Polls put it at 48 (No) and 47 (Yes). Angry voters vote. The Democratic base is unmotivated. Newsom will lose.