Progressivism In All Its Ugly Glory

by Arnold Ahlert - February 21st, 2011 - Jewish World Review

The battle lines couldn't be clearer: either the public will wrest this country back from the serial abusers for whom no government deficits are too large, no compensation packages too lavish and no special interest groups are too special, or we will all become vassals of their self-righteous, progressive tyranny.

Don't think for a second that the appearance in Wisconsin of the Democratic National Committee, along with Barack Obama's Organizing for America, is merely a show of "solidarity" with the "oppressed" public service employees. Wisconsin has become Ground Zero for a progressive movement quite comfortable with the use of intimidation, threats of harm and precisely the same hateful rhetoric they accuse conservatives of perpetrating whenever that particular bit of hypocrisy suits their purposes.

To put it succinctly, progressivism is all about the ends justifying the means. Once one understands that, everything else becomes clear. It makes it easy to understand why the same president who reminded Republicans that "I won" as the singular justification to implement his agenda, is taking the side of cowardly Wisconsin Democrat Senators who have made it clear that winning only counts when their side is victorious.

The most arrogant, and ignorant, attitude of this mob in Wisconsin is the constant comparison of their acts with the acts in the Middle East. These bigots see themselves as fighting oppression. To them, any time they do not get their way, it is oppression. Forget that the voters elected the Republicans to rein in the abuses of unjustified wages, outrageous benefits and exorbitant retirements at early age. To the unions, daring to take away their perks is the equivalent of abuses by the oil based dictatorships of the Middle East who never hold elections.

How ignorant are these people who have so little ability to see the fact -- they are the dictators, using power and intimidation to jam their greed down the throats of others without an iota of reality ever seeping in to their self righteous perceptions.

It appears that most of them do not remember the consequences of earlier attempts by public servants to strike in an attempt to force government, by the people, to bend to the will of the public servant's demands. Though advised not to call out the National Guard to restore order and end a strike by Boston Police, Calvin Coolidge did so because he felt it his duty to uphold the elected officials. This in spite of the fact that Coolidge felt the complaints by the police were justified. A strike by public servants is never the way to solve these disagreements. When the Mayor tried to fire the Police Commissioner who disciplined the striking officers, Coolidge ordered him back to his office.

In a surprise, the public backed Coolidge and returned him to office in a landslide. Coolidge's own words probably summed up the reaction best. “The people decided in favor of the integrity of their own government.” That is ultimately the reaction that public servants all over America need to remember during this current economic crisis. They cannot intimidate the voters by refusing to do the jobs they are paid to do. Ronald Reagan proved to the air traffic controllers - that has not changed.