Progressivism is an insulated worldview, cultivated in the public school system and universities, and shipped all over the country as people come to grips with the consequences of their own policies. I live on the west coast in California, a deep blue stronghold with near single-party control and some of the highest taxes in the country on income, gas, property, and sales. But that worldview of massive spending and marginal budgets, of living paycheck to paycheck and the constant feeling of anxiety that one major unforeseen incident (car repair, illness, accident, etc.) can lead to financial ruin tends to permeate the discussion. The progressive movement has two very distinct parts: the wealthy elites that sets the agenda and who are not affected by their own policies aka, the privileged, and those who dwell in the world that they create and believe that the elites are doing the right thing because the world is unfair to them.
I grew up in the public school system, my parents middle class. I was given toys at Christmas and was able to go on some of the trips for school, though not all of them. We always had food on the table, though it wasn’t lobster dinners every night. We got new clothes for school, but never from the boutique stores, and often from the clearance section of Walmart, Kmart, or Target. But we had our blessings. By today’s standards we would be considered privileged, and that we benefitted from the systemic racism that so many others didn’t receive, and therefore we should give up these things voluntarily lest we be forced to give them up.
I don’t understand the logic of this line of thinking, and I don’t understand why people would believe that the solution to a government that is supposedly systemically racist and discriminatory is to increase their power, reach, and scope. I don’t understand why inflicting new injustice is the only solution to past injustice. I don’t understand how the only solution to hatred and division is more hatred and division. But maybe that’s just my privilege talking and I’m simply incapable of such things and must be re-educated to see the errors of my way of thinking and that if only enough force is applied, I can finally see the correct point of view. Call me a skeptic, but any point of view that believes in the use of force or coercion to be accepted is not one for me, and not one for a believer in liberty or individuality.
What I notice about the Progressive agenda is the heavy insulation and isolation from the real world. When asked about the importance of education, during my school years, I had heard an endless refrain about going to college and the importance of going to college and the near mystical powers that a degree gives you in terms of earning potential. I have several reservations, particularly when it comes to the cost. A degree is not cost effective anymore, and not every degree is worth the investment. But with a huge influx of degrees in the world, the value of an Associate’s Degree, a Bachelor’s Degree, and even to some extent a Master’s Degree, has been watered down. People are finding it harder and harder to pay off their student loans, and student loan debt is unforgiveable. In the environmental arena, so much emphasis is being placed on renewable energy, but not on the cost to build up the infrastructure necessary to transition away from fossil fuels, or the necessary consequences of that transition.
Borders shouldn’t exist, yet everyone should be paid a living wage. Everyone should vote, get free college, healthcare, housing, utilities, and we should print money to pay for all of it. And none of these things will have any consequences because everything is just a social construct and the only meaning to anything is that which we give them. Reality is fully malleable, and any word can be changed to mean anything so long as enough people believe the new definition. The idealism of the Progressive agenda is awe-inspiring and vastly theoretical, and destroys more than it creates everywhere it is employed. But if we choose to go that route, then we get what we deserve.
A Place 4Politics 