Liberalism = Unhappyism
By Derrick Wilburn
A few days ago I had the displeasure of once again listening to MSNBC personality and radio talk show host Ed Schultz go
absolutely ballistic on a caller who happened to have the gall to
disagree with him. In this instance the caller was a retired 23-year
veteran of the United States' armed forces who called into Schultz's
show to help set the record straight concerning the effect on active
duty and retired military of the
healthcare law. Schultz gave the caller all of about twenty seconds
before becoming thoroughly unglued, hollering at one of our vets,
berating him, calling him "full of crap", disparaging and ultimately
hanging up on him. The exchange may be heard here.
This is far from unusual behavior from the progressive left. As a person who blogs, writes and sends newsletters, tweets, and administers multiple Facebooks I log a lot of e-miles every week. And in those journeys I encounter many, many progressive liberals, and boy are they upset. Even though they've been in control of the country for the last seven years! They call into talk shows, bang away on keyboards, and post comments that ultimately come back to the basic premise of, "If you don't think or believe as I think or believe -- you are an idiot."
I've reached the conclusion that liberals, especially hard left ultra-liberal/progressives, exist in a state of unhappy discontents. I don't mean these people never smile, have no friends, and just sit around in the dark, sulking all day. It's not so much that they're 'unhappy people' -- though many are -- as much as they're constantly unhappy with their own, their nation's, and the world's situation. They're seldom if ever happy with the way things are and thus always on a war path to change things.
Think about how our president campaigned and won. "Hope and Change" was his slogan for the 2008 election. Prior to his first swearing in he quipped, "We're just five days away from fundamentally changing America." Why the need for all this change? You typically want to change something if you're not happy about its current state. This is the mantra of left-wing liberalism, "We've got to change all this because the way it is now stinks." This seems to be how they feel about virtually everything.
While conservatives basically want to be left alone, believe in individual liberty, personal responsibility, and limited governmental intrusion, left-wingers want their preferences to become your laws and to impose their belief system on everyone.
Consider these examples: As a conservative, if you don't want to purchase a 40-ounce soda, what do you do? Simple. Not purchase a 40 ounce soda; get a 20 ounce instead. But if a left-wing liberal doesn't want a 40-ounce soda, what do they do? They seek to pass laws so that nobody can purchase a 40-ounce soda. If a conservative chooses not to smoke he or she doesn't buy cigarettes, doesn't smoke. But if a left-winger doesn't want to smoke they pass laws banning it for everybody or at least for as many as possible. A conservative thinks a clip that holds 20 rounds is too large for her firearm, she buys a 10-round clip. A left-wing liberal has the same thought and they're standing on the capitol steps waiving signs decrying how NOBODY should be able to purchase and own a 20-round clip.
A conservative doesn't think prayer prior to a high school football game is appropriate (not that a true conservative likely would), he simply withholds his child from the prayer session. But a liberal with the same thought goes on the war path. "We've got to end that practice! Not my children nor anyone's children should be out there praying!" "...well, not to Jesus, anyway." And they lawyer up, contact the ACLU, get letters into the local newspapers and do everything in their power to end the practice of praying before games.
And this list goes on and on and on. They're perpetually not happy with something, and so seek to pass laws to make their level of unhappiness the rule of the land for EVERYONE, whether everyone else was also unhappy about it or not. Left-wing liberalism is a perpetual state of "This sucks, we need laws to change it to the way I want it to be!" And if you don't want things to be the way that I want them to be, well, then you're an idiot. Or a racist. Or a Neanderthal. Or, most likely, all of the above. One need look no further for evidence than New York City's uber-left mayor, Michael Bloomberg, who in his eleven years as mayor has forced through laws regulating sugary drink sizes, table salt in restaurants, smoking limits, and a gaggle of other restrictions and regulations.
My two Facebook pages (Rocky Mountain Black Conservatives and American Conservatives of Color get visited and bombed every day by this brand of unhappy often downright angry left-wing ideologues. Their participation is as predictable as the sunrise. Inevitably they begin spewing emotion, name-calling, and vileness almost immediately. With some exceptions, precious few approach discussion from a standpoint of logic, reason, statistics, and factual analysis. Their participation is typically much more like Mr. Schultz's engagement of the military retiree -- yelling and anger. For reasons unknown, vast numbers of hard lefties are simply not happy.
Were it not for being discontented with the present state of things, were it not for the constant drive to change things so that "I'll be happier with them" left-wing liberalism would cease to exist. They're getting 'hope and change' by the bucketful right now and have been for nearly five years. But visit left-wing websites, blogs, or Facebook pages and what do you see? People ranting and railing about virtually everything. We're getting out of Iraq and Afghanistan at this very moment, yet on these sites posts are dedicated daily to "George Bush and Dick Cheney's phony war on terror!" The "Affordable Healthcare Act" is the law of the land and is being implemented as you read this, yet rather than celebrate, lefties invest massive amounts of time directing their ire toward the party that didn't vote for it. Rare is the leftist blog or column filled with praise, adoration, and thanksgiving toward this awesome nation of ours. Seems about 99.96% of the time it's some version of "this sucks!"
Were it not for being discontented with the present state of things; were it not for the constant drive to change things so that "I'll be happier with them," left-wing liberalism would cease to exist. Even the most casual perusing of various progressive organization's websites will result in discovery of extremely consistent themes. They are all, all about change. There are literally thousands of such organizations and websites, all obsessed with changing. Consider the "Advancement Project" (literally one I picked randomly from thousands). The final sentence of their mission statement, "We use innovative tools and strategies to strengthen social movements and achieve high impact policy change." Prominent on their "About Us" page? "Our theory of change."
From a political point of view, these are just plain unhappy people. For the moment anyway, they're running the show. One can't help but to wonder if sooner or later people will get tired of all the sucking on lemons. Because when and if they do, the political tides may just begin to turn.
This is far from unusual behavior from the progressive left. As a person who blogs, writes and sends newsletters, tweets, and administers multiple Facebooks I log a lot of e-miles every week. And in those journeys I encounter many, many progressive liberals, and boy are they upset. Even though they've been in control of the country for the last seven years! They call into talk shows, bang away on keyboards, and post comments that ultimately come back to the basic premise of, "If you don't think or believe as I think or believe -- you are an idiot."
I've reached the conclusion that liberals, especially hard left ultra-liberal/progressives, exist in a state of unhappy discontents. I don't mean these people never smile, have no friends, and just sit around in the dark, sulking all day. It's not so much that they're 'unhappy people' -- though many are -- as much as they're constantly unhappy with their own, their nation's, and the world's situation. They're seldom if ever happy with the way things are and thus always on a war path to change things.
Think about how our president campaigned and won. "Hope and Change" was his slogan for the 2008 election. Prior to his first swearing in he quipped, "We're just five days away from fundamentally changing America." Why the need for all this change? You typically want to change something if you're not happy about its current state. This is the mantra of left-wing liberalism, "We've got to change all this because the way it is now stinks." This seems to be how they feel about virtually everything.
While conservatives basically want to be left alone, believe in individual liberty, personal responsibility, and limited governmental intrusion, left-wingers want their preferences to become your laws and to impose their belief system on everyone.
Consider these examples: As a conservative, if you don't want to purchase a 40-ounce soda, what do you do? Simple. Not purchase a 40 ounce soda; get a 20 ounce instead. But if a left-wing liberal doesn't want a 40-ounce soda, what do they do? They seek to pass laws so that nobody can purchase a 40-ounce soda. If a conservative chooses not to smoke he or she doesn't buy cigarettes, doesn't smoke. But if a left-winger doesn't want to smoke they pass laws banning it for everybody or at least for as many as possible. A conservative thinks a clip that holds 20 rounds is too large for her firearm, she buys a 10-round clip. A left-wing liberal has the same thought and they're standing on the capitol steps waiving signs decrying how NOBODY should be able to purchase and own a 20-round clip.
A conservative doesn't think prayer prior to a high school football game is appropriate (not that a true conservative likely would), he simply withholds his child from the prayer session. But a liberal with the same thought goes on the war path. "We've got to end that practice! Not my children nor anyone's children should be out there praying!" "...well, not to Jesus, anyway." And they lawyer up, contact the ACLU, get letters into the local newspapers and do everything in their power to end the practice of praying before games.
And this list goes on and on and on. They're perpetually not happy with something, and so seek to pass laws to make their level of unhappiness the rule of the land for EVERYONE, whether everyone else was also unhappy about it or not. Left-wing liberalism is a perpetual state of "This sucks, we need laws to change it to the way I want it to be!" And if you don't want things to be the way that I want them to be, well, then you're an idiot. Or a racist. Or a Neanderthal. Or, most likely, all of the above. One need look no further for evidence than New York City's uber-left mayor, Michael Bloomberg, who in his eleven years as mayor has forced through laws regulating sugary drink sizes, table salt in restaurants, smoking limits, and a gaggle of other restrictions and regulations.
My two Facebook pages (Rocky Mountain Black Conservatives and American Conservatives of Color get visited and bombed every day by this brand of unhappy often downright angry left-wing ideologues. Their participation is as predictable as the sunrise. Inevitably they begin spewing emotion, name-calling, and vileness almost immediately. With some exceptions, precious few approach discussion from a standpoint of logic, reason, statistics, and factual analysis. Their participation is typically much more like Mr. Schultz's engagement of the military retiree -- yelling and anger. For reasons unknown, vast numbers of hard lefties are simply not happy.
Were it not for being discontented with the present state of things, were it not for the constant drive to change things so that "I'll be happier with them" left-wing liberalism would cease to exist. They're getting 'hope and change' by the bucketful right now and have been for nearly five years. But visit left-wing websites, blogs, or Facebook pages and what do you see? People ranting and railing about virtually everything. We're getting out of Iraq and Afghanistan at this very moment, yet on these sites posts are dedicated daily to "George Bush and Dick Cheney's phony war on terror!" The "Affordable Healthcare Act" is the law of the land and is being implemented as you read this, yet rather than celebrate, lefties invest massive amounts of time directing their ire toward the party that didn't vote for it. Rare is the leftist blog or column filled with praise, adoration, and thanksgiving toward this awesome nation of ours. Seems about 99.96% of the time it's some version of "this sucks!"
Were it not for being discontented with the present state of things; were it not for the constant drive to change things so that "I'll be happier with them," left-wing liberalism would cease to exist. Even the most casual perusing of various progressive organization's websites will result in discovery of extremely consistent themes. They are all, all about change. There are literally thousands of such organizations and websites, all obsessed with changing. Consider the "Advancement Project" (literally one I picked randomly from thousands). The final sentence of their mission statement, "We use innovative tools and strategies to strengthen social movements and achieve high impact policy change." Prominent on their "About Us" page? "Our theory of change."
From a political point of view, these are just plain unhappy people. For the moment anyway, they're running the show. One can't help but to wonder if sooner or later people will get tired of all the sucking on lemons. Because when and if they do, the political tides may just begin to turn.
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