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| Why Are Libs so Condescending? |
| 2010-02-07 |
| Every political community includes some members who insist that their side has all the answers and that their adversaries are idiots. But American liberals, to a degree far surpassing conservatives, appear committed to the proposition that their views are correct, self-evident, and based on fact and reason, while conservative positions are not just wrong but illegitimate, ideological and unworthy of serious consideration. Indeed, all the appeals to bipartisanship notwithstanding, President Obama and other leading liberal voices have joined in a chorus of intellectual condescension. I'm not sure why we need read past this point. It's an odd time for liberals to feel smug. But even with Democratic fortunes on the wane, leading liberals insist that they have almost nothing to learn from conservatives. Many Democrats describe their troubles simply as a PR challenge, a combination of conservative misinformation - as when Obama charges that critics of health-care reform are peddling fake fears of a "Bolshevik plot" - and the country's failure to grasp great liberal accomplishments. "We were so busy just getting stuff done...that I think we lost some of that sense of speaking directly to the American people about what their core values are," the president told ABC's George Stephanopoulos in a recent interview. The benighted public is either uncomprehending or deliberately misinformed (by conservatives). Yass, it's just a PR challenge! Liberals have dismissed conservative thinking for decades, a tendency encapsulated by Lionel Trilling's 1950 remark that conservatives do not "express themselves in ideas but only in action or in irritable mental gestures which seek to resemble ideas." During the 1950s and '60s, liberals trivialized the nascent conservative movement. Prominent studies and journalistic accounts of right-wing politics at the time stressed paranoia, intolerance and insecurity, rendering conservative thought more a psychiatric disorder than a rival. |
| Posted by:Bobby |
| #5 Progressive is actually a better term. Classic Progressivism is NOT democratic. It posits a belief in the "perfection" of humanity as imposed by a select wise elite. Not surprisingly early progressives were much enamored by fascism. They still are, but will obfuscate or hide these views. The attitude that "we're better than you" and "we know what's best for society" is a fundamental part of progressive belief. |
| Posted by: DMFD 2010-02-07 12:52 |
| #4 I am Democratic, that said, I am NOT "A" Democrat. |
| Posted by: Redneck Jim 2010-02-07 12:12 |
| #3 Well said, Procopius 2k...very well said indeed. |
| Posted by: WolfDog 2010-02-07 11:23 |
| #2 Because they are not Libs. Classical liberals believed in equal opportunity not equal outcome. Classical liberals recognized the sanctity of private property. Classical liberals just didn't mouth the concept of equality but practiced it. These are Socialist. They are very effective making everyone else avoid using that term because they know if they revealed their true selves their power would significantly diminish. Now Socialist believe in a superior ruling class. They are that superior caste. Why shouldn't they be condescending? /rhet question. |
| Posted by: Procopius2k 2010-02-07 09:57 |
| #1 Grandiosity, Fantasies, and Narcissism Zero and leading liberal voices have With the 2010 elections in the fall the adolescents will be voted out of office and the Adults will take over again. Trust no voter under the age of 35 - still in their extended adolescence |
| Posted by: Crens Jones3943 2010-02-07 08:20 |