“The Aggressor State”
Posted on August 1, 2009
by “Doctor Zero” on HotAir.com
Some people don’t like using the term “liberal” to describe the Left, since modern conservatism is the true inheritor of classical liberalism. There’s certainly nothing “liberating” about the monster state Democrats are constructing, in which freeborn men and women wear chains forged from 1300-page energy bills and trillion dollar health-care takeovers. The Left is always looking for a new brand name, as each of their previous names becomes a dirty word. I’m not eager to help them with their marketing efforts, but a more accurate name than “liberals” would be “aggressors.” Barack Obama may have little skill at effectively governing, but he is eminently qualified to be Commander-in-Chief of the Aggressor State.
The Left is always on the attack, because the way it requires people to live is contrary to their normal tendencies. It’s debatable whether America is currently a conservative nation, but every family and community is essentially conservative by nature. The ideas we closely associate with the modern Right are the common-sense, default behavior of people left to their own devices: free enterprise, freedom of speech, freedom of association, strength in defense, respect for private property, and reverence for the value of tradition. The modern Left does not like any of those things, or at least considers them all negotiable in value. The Left obviously believes its morally superior values take priority over free enterprise. Freedom of speech and association are trumped by racial agendas. Liberal intellectuals have long viewed private property as not merely an impediment to socialist designs, but an outright evil. Defense is the only area of government spending Democrats ever feel comfortable with cutting. The Left has nothing but contempt for tradition, and often mistakes this contempt for a sign of intelligence. Ignorant of its own intellectual history, modern liberalism doesn’t think anyone else’s intellectual history matters, either. The tired old New Deal programs and Keynesian voodoo of the Obama Administration can seem like fresh and new ideas, provided you can convince yourself history began in November 2008.
Because liberalism defines itself as transformative, it is very comfortable with aggression. This posture serves them well with a public that believes “progress” is inherently positive. The business of building the modern super-state has been a sustained attack, using cultural pressure, legislative power, and the blunt instrument of loyal voting blocs to beat Middle America into submission. The goal of the Left is to convince the middle class to give it the power to do things they would never be depraved or dishonest enough to do themselves. Ordinary people refer to the “redistribution of wealth” as “theft.”…
…Some wonder if the mounting public opposition to ObamaCare will frighten the Democrats away from it. I think they’ll make a concerted push to ram it down everyone’s throat, rallying faint-hearted congressional Democrats with any necessary combination of threats and rewards. Nationalized health care is the decisive battlefield for the Aggressor State’s war on its citizens. If the State wins this one, there will be no further meaningful resistance, until the whole system collapses. That will be a new war for the Left, but I think its leaders will be unable to pass up on the opportunity to win a final victory in the war they’ve been fighting against the American republic for the last century. They only need to hold their reluctant congressional troops together for one final charge. The most urgent task awaiting every American who still values his freedom is frightening them enough to break that charge.
Entire article at The Green Room
