Quote of the day—Leonard Pitts

A 2014 Pew Research Center study found that the percentage of Democrats and Republicans holding extremely negative views of the opposite party has more than doubled since 1994; Pew also found that, while 64 percent of Republicans in ’94 held opinions that were to the right of the average Democrat, these days 92 percent do. And 94 percent of Democrats are now to the left of the GOP median.

So the right is moving further right, the left, further left and the center, as the poet Yeats observed, “cannot hold.”

What other option, then, do Democrats have but to move left, exploiting the anger, energy and enthusiasm to be found there?

Leonard Pitts
October 16, 2017
Democrats need to move left
[Yes. That should work nicely. Advocating for the policies of Venezuela and Cuba will play so well in the GOP advertisements.

I find it very telling that the option of liberty and adherence to the constitutional limits of government doesn’t even cross his mind. Laws and principles are for suckers. The only thing of importance is restoring power to “his people”.—Joe]

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12 thoughts on “Quote of the day—Leonard Pitts

  1. The further to the loony left they move, the less relevant and more geographically isolated they are. You can’t pack all your political followers into a half dozen metro areas and expect to win national elections.

    • But, with any luck (and by virtue that they cannot do math to save their lives), they’ll continue to think they can, and will thus keep losing elections.

  2. One problem is that as the Democrats move left, the Republicans will also move left to take the center. Thus while the Republicans may win elections, they continue to move left. For example, look at how well the repeal of Obamacare has gone with Republicans in power.

      • Unfortunately the Libertarian Party isn’t libertarian any longer and has no particular reason to exist. Which might explain why it doesn’t, really.

        • I’m registered as Libertarian, but haven’t seen any worth voting for in several cycles. Those two idiots who ran for Prez/VP in ’16 finished it for me. I’m gone.

        • Same here. I even ran for office once on the LP ticket (NH state house). Got 11% with $0 spent, on the strength of a newspaper writeup or two plus a good rating from GONH. If I ever do anything like that again I expect it would be on the R ticket. (Not likely; my wife says “I’d hate to be married to a politician”.)

      • Not really. They are also far to the left on many issues, and internationalist / open border folks. Yes, they are good on guns, and favor ending the war on (some) drugs, but are bad on a whole host of issues, too. I used to favor them, calling myself a “small ‘L’ libertarian,” but they’ve gone loopy, too.

  3. There is the Pew Research Center and then there is Joe’s Pew-Pew Research.

    One does not need to take a poll to know what’s been happening politically in this country.

    Why do I see such a poll as damage assessment by the left? Like flying over Dresden in mid February of 1944 to take photographs?

    “laws and principles are for suckers”

    Yes, to any leftist or “centerist” (positioning one’s self as a centerist is in itself a game, or tactic in a game) it’s all about the game, and a gamer gaming the game is the definition of cleverness in most circles. Thus, in their cynical eyes, you have the smart people on one side and the simple-minded, dumbo “conservatives” on the other.

    Those of faith will recognize immediately that when one resorts to gaming it is due to a lack of faith. The component of faith is left out of the discussion at our peril.

    What is a principle, after all, If one has so little confidence in it that it’s rarely discussed, or that it must be hidden? What is a principle if one is reluctant to stand for it in open discussion for fear of hurting the game? If one has faith in the principles, one does not need to look elsewhere (toward gaming tactics, subterfuge and other forms of “cleverness”) for support.

    One seeks to use ones cleverness when one is looking to glorify one’s self, as opposed to glorifying those principles which, with our support, if they are the right ones, are more than capable of winning the day without being dressed up, ignored for the sake of a game, camouflaged, or tactically redefined.

    The serious gamer, like most politicians, eventually forgets principles altogether, because they only get in the way of the game. The principles then have become embarrassing. Thus you become a true leftist, though you may think of yourself as a Republican or libertarian. Eventually, “principles”, the word having degenerated into another word for “tactics”, would pertain only to the process of the game. At that stage you are utterly lost (though you may be popular and even rich).

  4. A leftist knows a fellow gamer when he sees one. So, you may believe that you’re his opposition, and you may even give lip service to some true principles, but the leftist, always looking for weakness, can see right through you. He sees you’re a hypocrite, that you’re no better than he, that you’re just another cynical gamer looking to gain an advantage for yourself.

    So it is easier for a leftist or even a fence-sitter to hate a conservative than it is for a principled American to hate the leftist. Today’s “conservative”, being a centrist, is more of a hypocrite. He’s purported to know better, he claims to have principles, but he games the game for the sake of the game anyway.

    Ayn Rand wrote about this in Capitalism, but few paid any attention then and fewer pay it any attention now (maybe she was being too “clever”). The game is too important for such distractions anyway.

    • Thanks to McCain-Feingold, the first thing every office-holder has to do is raise the money for re election, and that means that there isn’t much time for principles.
      I think it was Evell Younger, a California politician of many offices, who said something like,”you can have all the best intentions in the world, but you have to stay in office to accomplish them.”

  5. When you are dealing with leftist whose lust for power and control is all-consuming, law and principle is indeed for suckers. It is also suicidal.

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