Posted by
JDComments on Tuesday, December 12, 2006 2:55:40 PM
In my ongoing effort to understand the enemy, recently I have been contemplating the Liberal infatuation with “groups”, categorizing people by what they perceive to be commonality of interests, whether it be Black, females, Gays, or whatever. This Group Think mentality I have always ascribed to their effort to eliminate friction in society by removing individual traits, with the added benefit that it helps them to target their constituencies. However, recently I have begun to realize that it is more than that, much more. If I am right, it is the key to their governing philosophy, and if it is threatened they recognize their Big Government philosophy is doomed.
To follow my reasoning, first it must be realized that effective laws are predicated on the consensus of a large part of the population, hence things like murder, robbery, rape and other major crimes are no brainers. Up until the 20th century, these were the kind of laws we had, and government was relatively small and constrained. Most Americans were treated as individual units, and common interests were relatively few, so forging laws was difficult.
With the Depression suddenly there was a huge poor population with needs, and the Liberal mentality of Big government offering solutions arose to answer the call of these people. FDR’s administration saw the birth of Liberalism as we understand it today, and for that he will forever be remembered, for good or bad.
After the war, with the demise of the destitute masses, Liberals latched on to the Black population and began applying their paternalism to another group which demanded action for inequities that affected most of them. The civil right actions of the 1970’s was the result.
However, as the Black population began to diversify , the Liberals realized that they had to define new groups who had mutual needs which were easily definable, or trying to pass laws and government programs would become difficult if not impossible. Developing laws for a nation of individualists is harder than herding cats, and unless the Liberals could create new block constituencies that were "victims" needing to be saved they could see the era of big government fade.
So they latched unto women, as if all females share the same needs and aspirations, other ethnic minorities, Gays and just about any other group that they could convince should “stick together” for the cause, whatever that was. Again, aside from finding voters, this driving urge to group people into categories with actuarial precision and identify their “needs” allowed Liberals to perpetuate Big Government by providing the critical mass needed to pass more and more arcane laws.
As a result of this, Liberals fear the fracturing of any of their "victim" constituencies, and so when a Michael Steele threatens to show Blacks they do not all have the same goals or dreams, Dems immediately go on the offensive to disparage him. After all, think how many government programs and laws have arisen from addressing perceived Black needs, and imagine if suddenly they were not a source for Liberals to tap into to justify affirmative action , quotas and more educational spending.
And the day women are treated as individuals as opposed to a group is the day the rationale for a female Supreme Court Justice, representing “Women’s Views” becomes an anachronism, relegated to the dustbin of historical nonsense. Consider the good job Ginsberg does representing conservative females today and you begin to understand that the invented need for a female justice is based on a farce.
And so the party which nominally espouses personal liberty and freedom and the value of the individual finds itself needing blocks of victims all identified as having the same needs and wants to justify and implement its big Government beliefs. Torn by this internal struggle Liberals, like many mentally tormented people, manifest contradictory and destructive behavior as they seek to reconcile that which cannot be conjoined, fearing the day that our individualism once again relegates them to obscurity, supplanted by Conservatism's gospel of limited government. When there are no more group "victims", the need for Liberals will be no more.