Where We Are Today
A sequel to this morning's note, plus some memes to get us up to cocktail hour
Grateful to my pal SL in Arizona for drawing my attention to this lapidary passage from our mutual teacher Harry Jaffa’s bicentennial essay, “Equality as a Conservative Principle,” which fits the Democratic Party of AOC-Mamdani today better than the bloody glove fit O.J. Simpson’s artificially bloated hand:
“The only significant differences I can see between today’s Liberals and today’s Radicals concerns means rather than ends. How often during the troubles of the 60s did we hear Liberals deplore the Radicals’ violence, telling them they should ‘work within the system.’? How often did we hear these same Liberals praise the Radicals for their idealism, asking only that they learn patience? But the Radicals made a great deal more sense. If their ideals were so praiseworthy, then a system which obstructed their fulfillment was blameworthy. And why work within a blameworthy system for praiseworthy ends [unless you can change or take over the system]?
“Liberalism and Radicalism both reject the wisdom of the past, as enshrined in the institutions and lessons of the past, or in its morality. They deny legitimacy to laws, governments, or ways of life which accept the ancient evils of mankind, such as poverty, inequality, and war, as necessary, and thus permanent, attributes of the human condition. Political excellence can no longer be measured by the degree to which it ameliorates such evils. The only acceptable goal is abolition…..
“The Old Liberalism saw life as a race, in which justice demanded for everyone only a fair or equal chance in the competition. But the New Liberalism sees the race itself as wrong. In every race there can be but one winner, and there must be many losers… But the New Liberalism denies natural no less than conventional inequalities. In the Heaven of the New Liberalism, as in that of the Old Theology, all will be rewarded equally. The achievement of the good society is itself the only victory. But this victory is not to be one of man over man, but of mankind over the scourges of mankind.”
Or we can also go with Charles Krauthammer’s axiom: “A Democrat today is a socialist with a filter.”
Now for some memes, starting with the Tweet of the Day:
A note on yesterday's NYC election, which note should tell folks something about what is happening there and in other blue cities/states: the registered voter turnout was about 30%. There you have it. What's that old saw? Oh, yeah: for evil to triumph, it in only necessary for the good to sit on their hands, or something like that. I am too old to remember exact quotes of ancient wisdom.
"How often during the troubles of the 60s did we hear Liberals deplore the Radicals’ violence, telling them they should ‘work within the system?"
Never.
"How often did we hear these same Liberals praise the Radicals for their idealism, asking only that they learn patience"
Often.
"In the Heaven of the New Liberalism, as in that of the Old Theology, all will be rewarded equally. The achievement of the good society is itself the only victory. But this victory is not to be one of man over man, but of mankind over the scourges of mankind.”
Folks. We are closer to the 2060s than we are to the 1960's. Why do we have to be ruled forever by the geriatric patients who ran the "Great Society of Lyndon Baines Johnson?