PrintMay 2, 2011
The Inconsistent Liberal Mind
Much is being made of President Obama's recent decision to employ presidential signing statements -- refusing to enforce certain portions of a Congressional budget bill he signed into law -- given that during the 2008 campaign he railed against such a practice, proclaiming, "We're not gonna use signing statements as a way of doing an end run around Congress." This glaring inconsistency would strike most people as hypocritical. But coupled with his decisions to use military tribunals after blasting them during the campaign, to keep Guantanamo open for business after previously blaming it as nothing but a recruiting tool for al-Qaeda, and to start new wars after vociferously condemning "dumb" ones, this is par for the Obama course.
But beyond the blatantly obvious flip-flops which the Obama-loving mainstream press find a way to excuse as just part of the president's remarkably nuanced mind, this behavior fits a much larger pattern of inconsistency that has come to define the liberal mind in America. Inconsistencies that should bring great embarrassment when exposed, and that rationality would demand be confronted and resolved, are systematically embraced and welcomed in the land of left-believe.
How else can one explain the recent protest that took place in Washington, D.C.? There, over 40 liberals (including the city's mayor and several councilmen) took to the streets to complain that the budget deal recently passed by Congress would deprive the nation's capital city of federal tax dollars to fund abortions. In the name of choice, these left-wing activists blocked the streets until being detained by police. On its own, seeing a group of liberals championing the right to choose to kill children in the womb is nothing new.
But that wasn't all they were protesting. Another part of the budget deal that had raised their ire was the reinstatement of the Opportunities Scholarship Program. This school choice program provides poor families the chance to move their children from failing inner-city schools to higher performing ones, allowing future generations of predominantly minority students the opportunity to escape the cycle of poverty that engulfs them. This protest, then, is the perfect embodiment of modern liberal thought: rally in the streets to continue facilitating the choice to slaughter innocent children in the womb while simultaneously demanding that those children who survive the abortion holocaust be given no choice to break free from their deplorable educational surroundings.
Or consider the brewing controversy in the New York public libraries where patrons are allowed virtually unfettered access to view hard-core pornography on the computers. The ACLU and their fellow liberal travelers are quick to defend the smut as a constitutional right. Library spokesman Angela Montefinise explained as much, stating, "In deference to the First Amendment protecting freedom of speech, the New York Public Library cannot prevent adult patrons from accessing adult content that is legal."
Of course, no deference to the First Amendment protection of freedom of religion is necessary when and if library officials would want to set up a Nativity Scene on the front lawn. Here again, we see the state of the liberal mind: Jesus Christ on public library taxpayer-funded lawns violates the U.S. Constitution, but porn star Jenna Jameson on public library taxpayer-funded computer screens -- in plain sight of little Bobby checking out his Curious George book -- is the essence of the First Amendment.
And finally, how can we overlook the witch hunt liberals are instigating against the evil oil speculators that they claim are single-handedly driving up the cost of fuel in America? In a desperate bid to divert the nation's attention from the logical consequences of President Obama's war against domestic oil production, the left attacks those who attempt to make money in oil futures by buying low and selling high. They create a patently absurd fantasy that there is a secret room where a handful of evil masterminds sit around cackling like madmen as they play us all like harp strings. But as Columbia Business School finance professor Bob Hodrick explains, "[t]he market is so competitive that that's nonsense. There's no way for everyone to communicate and get together and say, 'we're going to buy and drive up the price.'" Of course not.
Ironically though, the only power cabal capable of wielding enough influence over the market to make any significant difference in our economic health is the Obama Administration -- the very ones ordering investigations into these non-existent secret price manipulators. Bill Kristol drew attention to this inconvenient truth on last week's Fox News Sunday, explaining that Obama's speculation on the massive stimulus package has exploded the deficit while failing to create any noticeable economic growth. What it has done is generate "more government spending and unbelievably cheap money depreciating, [thus] debasing the dollar."
That, in the end, is what contributes far more to high gas and food prices than any other factor. If liberals want to blame speculators for our troubles, intellectual honesty demands that they begin with our Speculator-in-Chief.
But intellectual honesty is not the order of the day in the modern liberal mind -- a place where if it weren't for double standards, there seemingly would be no standards at all.
Peter is a public high school government teacher and radio talk show host in central Indiana. E-mail peter@peterheck.com, visit www.peterheck.com, or like him on Facebook.
