Commentary
We can learn a lot if we listen to what public figures tell us. I’ve saved a few choice quotes from the left over the past year, but lately the revealing statements have been coming in droves, so let’s review a few.
In an interview last fall, Hillary Clinton, still smarting over her loss in the 2016 election, longed for the good old days when there were only three commercial broadcast networks and a few dominant national newspapers. Back then, she said, “It was a much more controllable environment.” These days, she lamented, “it’s a lot harder for Americans to know what they’re supposed to believe.” Somehow, I doubt most Americans believe that the role of the media is to tell us what we are supposed to believe.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) shares Clinton’s displeasure with the notion that Americans can make up their own mind on vital issues. In fact, she seems to distrust democratic elections.
Last November, after failing to persuade Congress to remove Trump from office for his phone call to Ukraine’s president, Pelosi scolded her Democratic colleagues in the House. The Speaker said that the “weak response” was to “let the election decide” whether they wanted Trump as president. She called that a “dangerous position.” (By the way, PolitiFact accused Trump of a falsity by tweeting, “Pelosi just stated that ‘it is dangerous to let voters decide Trump’s fate.'” Yes, the president paraphrased, and so he shouldn’t have used quotation marks, but he restated the essence of Pelosi’s message accurately.)
In my previous article, I wrote about the seething hatred on the left and the nihilistic, destructive behavior resulting from that dark state of thought. The green movement is stewed in the rantings of misanthropic environmentalists who characterize the human race as a “disease,” “virus,” “vermin,” “cancer,” etc. Then you have a Bernie Sanders campaign staffer getting his kicks from proclaiming, “guillotine the rich.” Denver City Councilwoman Candi CdeBacay, a Democrat, re-tweeted a California woman’s tweet that said, “For the record, if I do get the coronavirus, I’m attending every MAGA rally I can.” Also, there’s an appalling two-minute video compilation showing everything from Pelosi wondering why there aren’t more riots to various celebrities and talking heads yearning to burn down the White House and assassinate President Trump.
Most recently, there was the ugly incident in Portland when a Trump supporter was shot to death and some not-so-peace-loving protesters cheered when one of their mob used a bullhorn to exult, “I am not sorry that a f—fascist died tonight!” Wow. That clearly illustrates an important difference between left and right. Every conservative I know agrees that passing counterfeit currency (George Floyd’s deed that got him embroiled with the police) wasn’t a capital offense, that his death was a tragedy, and that his death was wrong. The heartless comment in Portland indicates that leftists believe that being a Trump supporter is a capital offense. How long can democracy survive such fascist fanaticism?
Indeed, this summer’s riots have elicited all sorts of revealing nonsense from the lips of the left. Writer Vicky Osterweil has gained popularity on the left for publishing “In Defense of Looting.” In her NPR interview promoting the book, she makes such stunning observations as “without police and without state oppression, we can have things for free” (thereby ignoring, but not repealing, the first law of economics: TANSTAAFL—“There Ain’t No Such Thing As A Free Lunch.” Oserweil also said, “It’s just property. It’s not actually hurting any people.” Uh, excuse me, try telling small business owners whose dreams and livelihood have gone up in rioters’ smoke that stealing or destroying property doesn’t hurt people. How would she like it, I wonder, if her home or business, or her parents’ home or business, were looted or torched?
Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot sounded like a law-and-order public official when she ordered police to arrest protesters on the block where she lives because, “We have a right in our home to live in peace.” Of course, like most leftists, she doesn’t really have a heart for the common people, because she gave the Chicago police no similar orders when the protesters were active in other neighborhoods. In fact, Chicagoans, many of them Democrats, are moving out of the city because they fear for their safety and feel that Mayor Lightfoot has failed to do her job.
By the way, one Chicago citizen, wanting to show her progressive bona fides, stated, “I think people forget that people do live here, too—it’s not just the Guccis and the Jimmy Choo stores. And I completely support it all [i.e., the rioting]. You stealing shoes means nothing to me—that doesn’t hurt me at all. It’s just the fact that that brings more crime, and that does endanger me.” Go ahead and plunder the rich, she is saying, as long as you leave me alone.
How incredibly heartless and morally obtuse! The rich are people and often American citizens, too. If we are to be equal in the eyes of the law, those people’s lives and property must be safe, too.
Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler showed that he’s not the sharpest tool in the shed when he said of President Trump, “We know you’ve reached the conclusion that images of violence or vandalism are your only ticket to reelection.” Well, then, sir, if that’s the case, why have you not been doing everything in your power to re-establish calm and order so that your mortal political enemy can’t benefit from violent images emanating from your city? In fact, Mayor Wheeler has failed in his misguided attempts to appease the thugs, and now the thugs’ attacks against his condo have caused Wheeler to announce his intention to move.
And then there’s presidential candidate Joe Biden. He showed his true colors during a typical “confuse-the-issues-with-lies-and-half-truths” speech in Pittsburgh on Aug. 31. Buried within the touchy-feely baloney was this ominous nugget: “Does anyone believe there’ll be less violence in America if Donald Trump is reelected?” Tell us, Joe, was that a threat? Is that what your leftist buddies have told you? Have they promised you that they'll hold the riots in check if you’re elected so that you can move full-speed ahead with the socialist agenda?
Finally, I owe The Epoch Times’ readers a follow-up to my recent article on Kamala Harris misusing the Good Samaritan parable.
Sen. Harris (D-Calif.) showed her compassionate heart in June when she tweeted an appeal for people to give financial support to people in need in riot-torn Minneapolis. Did Harris start a crowdfunding campaign to help innocent citizens whose businesses had been vandalized, robbed, and destroyed? No. Instead, she helped raise bail money for those who had been arrested for vandalizing, robbing, and destroying those businesses. I think Harris needs to go back to Sunday School and get that Good Samaritan story straightened out. The Samaritan gave his money to help the innocent victim of an attack, not to start a legal defense fund for the attackers.
Friends, I leave it to you to decide whether the pattern and tenor of the above sentiments accurately reflect the values of today’s progressives, or whether you believe that I have taken them out of context. Please don’t forget to vote in November. And choose wisely.
Mark Hendrickson, an economist, recently retired from the faculty of Grove City College, where he remains a fellow for economic and social policy at the Institute for Faith and Freedom.
The views expressed herein are solely those of the author. As a nonpartisan public charity, The Epoch Times does not endorse these statements and takes no position on political candidates.
Views expressed in this article are opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.
