They aren’t just wrong, but Bad, with a capital B. Let’s note a quote that Smitty supplies
A hundred years ago, the first group of progressives concluded that this country needed to change in a big way. They argued explicitly for a refounding of the United States on the grounds that the only absolute in political life is that absolutes are material and economic rather than moral in nature.
I used a different emphasis than Smitty did, leading to this op-ed by Eugene Robinson, who’s never shy about stoking the flames of racism
Millions of African Americans took advantage of the opportunities created by the civil rights movement to climb into the middle class — and in some cases far beyond, as exemplified by President Obama and Attorney General Eric Holder.
Yet millions of other black Americans did not reach the middle class. This group, mired in poverty and dysfunction, finds the paths others took are blocked. They live in neighborhoods with failing schools that cannot prepare them for today’s economy. Secure, high-paying blue-collar jobs are a thing of the past. Racial bias in policing means African Americans are much more likely to be arrested and jailed for minor nonviolent offenses, such as drug possession, than whites who commit the same crimes.
Increasingly, these African Americans who were left behind are invisible. Their neighborhoods either get gentrified — which means they can no longer afford to stay there — or simply bypassed by development. What happens in poor black neighborhoods has less and less to do with the everyday lives of middle-class Americans, white or black.
Yet in Ferguson and other such pockets across the nation, millions of young black men and women grow up knowing that the deck is stacked against them.
Then we have this from Ta-Neshi Coates at The Atlantic, another writer willing to fan the flames of racism, with the pithy title Reparations for Ferguson
Among the many relevant facts for any African-American negotiating their relationship with the police the following stands out: The police departments of America are endowed by the state with dominion over your body. This summer in Ferguson and Staten Island we have seen that dominion employed to the maximum ends—destruction of the body. This is neither new nor extraordinary. It does not matter if the destruction of your body was an overreaction. It does not matter if the destruction of your body resulted from a misunderstanding. It does not matter if the destruction of your body springs from foolish policy. Sell cigarettes without proper authority and your body can be destroyed. Resent the people trying to entrap your body and it can be be destroyed. Protect the home of your mother and your body can be destroyed. Visit the home of your young daughter and your body will be destroyed. The destroyers of your body will rarely be held accountable. Mostly they will receive pensions.
It will not do to point out the rarity of the destruction of your body by the people whom you pay to protect it. As Gene Demby has noted, destruction is merely the superlative form of a dominion whose prerogatives include friskings, detainings, beatings, and humiliations. All of this is common to black people. All of this is old for black people. No one is held accountable. The body of Michael Brown was left in the middle of the street for four hours. It can not be expected that anyone will be held accountable.
Both of these opinion pieces have different central themes, and both of them inadvertently highlight the failure of Progressive doctrine. Both highlight the failure of Progressive government. Who controls the urbanized areas? Democrats. In Robinson’s case, we see that Black’s are left behind in terrible economic and social conditions created by Progressive policies, all while Progressives fan the flames of racism. In Coates’ case, we see that Big Government, stoked and pushed by Progressives, which increasingly has more and more control of “your body”, is damned dangerous.
Progressive policies have failed Blacks. When will Progressives finally note the how bad their policies are?
[…] budget is now over $3 trillion per year., and this is the result. When will progressives learn that their polices stink? Even when they point out their failures, they still don’t get the cause. With any luck […]
And the poorest, most poverty-afflicted states have Republican governors and legislatures. So, what’s your point?
Do you really think city level governments create jobs and reduce poverty? Or are you using a meaningless correlation to score a political point? Those are rhetorical questions.
We need to be arguing about the best way to create more well paying jobs, supporting families and affordable high-quality educational opportunities.
Jeff,
I agree with your statement in respect to job creation and creation of wealth. So, why don’t the Dems take action? The Republicans have passed numerous bills to do exactly what you are proposing, but Reid will not hold a vote and Obama will veto. So, lets do what works, lets drastically reduce or eliminate taxes on business, reduce taxes on all individuals, reduce the size and scope of the government, get rid of the majority of regulations, return health care to private enterprise and get the government out, get rid of all the alphabet soup of agencies in the Federal government, de-regulate drugs and allow people the freedom to obtain the medical care they want, not dictated to them. In short, lets do what the economic books strongly recommend.
dave,
You fantasize that far-right conservative policies will make things better. That’s the rub. Regulations and programs evolved not because things were great and we wanted to make them a bit better, but because things sucked and we wanted to make them tolerable.
We all seem to want the same outcome – freedom + prosperity for all – but we differ on strategy.
Our current political system as evolved (devolved?) to support the wants and needs of the wealthy. As bad as the Democrats are, your policy prescriptions will make things even worse.
Jeff,
Funny thing but the liberal approach to the economy is not working and is headed for disaster. My prescription has been successfully used and works every time. Then, you really don’t have any idea of the regulation business.
We certainly differ on strategy, but, I will say that Progressives do not want freedom, based on their continuous push for more and more Big Government.
And what you call prosperity for all looks suspiciously like the squalor for all we saw in the Soviet Union.
No, what I call prosperity is families able to feed all their members, dress them, send the kids to school, afford health care, child care, shelter and transportation and be able to save a few dollars.
What freedoms are the progressives taking from you?
Oh I dunno…..how about….families able to feed all their members, dress them, send the kids to school, afford health care, child care, shelter and transportation and be able to save a few dollars.
Add to that the attack on rights such as attacks on the first, second, 4th, and 5th amendments, and you begin to see the effects of the progressive agenda.
Can you be specific? Your first sentence is just nonsense.
You second sentence mentions 4 Amendments. Can you give examples from any one of these amendments where citizens’ freedoms have been taken away?
I was just as specific as you were. Maybe even more.
In case you didn’t notice, it is a copy of what you wrote. I don’t think I can address why you think your own writing is nonsense.
Why yes, yes I can.
Thanks for asking.
Just as I thought. Thanks.
g2 typed: In case you didn’t notice, it is a copy of what you wrote. I don’t think I can address why you think your own writing is nonsense.
You famously display your lack of reading comprehension again.
The idea that progressives are keeping you from taking care of your family is nonsense.
Conservatives whine that liberals are stealing their freedoms, yet can never name one freedom they’ve lost. Waah!!
Come back when you can name a freedom you’ve lost.
Jeffery,
Well, I doubt if you thought anything that made logical sense because your next post shows that you didn’t think, but no matter what, you’re welcome.
I am sorry if you cannot understand your own words, Jeffery. That is amazing to me, but totally predictable as you have always displayed a lack of comprehension, but a great ability to parrot.
You are free to believe that Jeffery, but for those of us who live in the real world, we all know your position to be false.
I’m sorry, but there is that comprehension issue of yours again. You asked if someone “can give examples…..”
I answered that I can.
I am not sure why you are crying like a 2 year old when I have answered your questions. Maybe it is because you cannot understand your own writings and the things you say?
You should work on that.
There ya go you little progressive censor you.
You don’t own this blog. You don’t pay for the bandwidth.
If Teach asks me not to come back here, I won’t. (And in case you were wondering, he hasn’t.)
You don’t even have the right to try and control anything on this blog but like a little freedom denying progressive, you think you can tell others what to do and what they cannot do on property that is not theirs.
Thanks for demonstrating an answer to your own question, Jeffery.
jeff,
Lets see, what freedoms am I lacking. Well I will use one of the statements from a hero of the progressives, none other than FDR. He stated that he had stripped the country of every liberty but freedom of religion. Now in my own life, I can not open certain businesses, like a nursing home or lab as I hold an MD. Then my salary and charging are closely regulated and if I don’t do what is required, which is tough as the regulations beat the IRS book by about twice, well then I am accused of committing fraud and go to jail. That fraud law is much different from what you face and does not require the government to prove the fact. Lawyers could not believe that until I pointed it out. Then my ability to treat patients in anything but a government approved manner is subject to even more legal activity. By this, I mean that if I feel cholesterol in not a factor in ones health and the drugs are killing a patient, then I am still compelled by the state to treat something that has nothing to do with illness. More on this will become apparent to you in the next 5 years as the 50 years of crap is starting to break down. I can go on and on. But the fact is that this is not the same country we had in the 50’s and 60’s and it is much, much worse.