I took a look at my recent AT articles and I apologize. I have been dancing around the elephant in the room. The only thing that matters in America right now is that liberals got everything wrong. And they can’t believe it. They won’t believe it. They dare not believe it.

When was the last time a New York Times writer said that the trouble with the labor and pro-union legislation of the 1930s is that it led directly to the overpriced manufacturing union labor of the 1970s? In the long run, it Made Things Worse for the white working-class that, experts agree, is now “dying of despair.”

When was the last time a New York Times writer said that the trouble with Social Security is that it has shoveled boatloads of money at okay Boomers like me? It has Made Things Worse for today’s workers who are now, some experts agree, saddled with cruel taxes as far as the eye can see.

When was the last time a New York Times writer said that the trouble with the Civil Rights Act was that it could never compensate for the fact that blacks score a whole standard deviation lower on IQ than whites… So all the programs and quotas and diversities and inclusions and race cards of the last 50 years, experts dare not agree, have actually Made Things Worse for blacks.

And so on.

Liberals believe that they were sent into the world by Gaia to bring justice and equality to the oppressed. That is their religion, their faith; that is their meaning of life. It cannot be; it cannot be that their sacred task doesn’t make a blind bit of difference. No, the idea that their ideas Make Things Worse is racism-sexism-homophobia and white supremacy and systemic racism and “hate.” It must be so.

The fundamental thing to understand about today’s politics -- and to keep yourself sane -- is to understand that liberals cannot believe, refuse to believe… will destroy America rather than begin to consider that their brilliant ideas that were going to change the world, have not, will not, never would, never could change the world for the better. And worse, their ideas, their legislation, their political power, their cultural hegemony have Made Things Worse.

Look, a few days ago I backed the car out of the driveway and into a car parked on the other side of the street: Total damage at least $1,000. I was consumed with guilt, wondering if I might just escape from responsibility because, after all, the damage to the other car was barely perceptible. But I overruled the coward within and called the insurance company and left a note on the car’s windshield. I am still thinking: “what if I…”

Imagine what liberals would feel if they even began to allow themselves to think about the trillions of dollars thrown down the drain, the millions of lives wrecked, the hate and the division that their policies have caused. And suppose they allowed a teensy-weensy soupçon of guilt to invade their consciousness. Not on your life.

Instead, the lefties ask Andrew Sullivan: “What Happened to You?”

Then there are the millions of lives that, while not wrecked, have Been Made Worse. Here’s an English prof that went to university back when a teacher was allowed to teach:

I think of one in particular, an English teacher to whom I’d brought a piece of freshman writing I’d ginned up only minutes before a mandatory conference. I knew it was junk when I carried it to his desk. He stared me, growling, “You get the hell out of this office. And don’t come back until you respect yourself and me enough to do serious work.”

Today this poor prof has to worry about whether the Good Little Girl student in the front row will burst into tears or the “tall, wiry black student” in the back row will become “angry and hostile when I [offer] critical comments on his papers.” Because sexism, because racism. And why?

It’s not because liberals won’t admit they were wrong. It’s not because liberals can’t bring themselves to admit they were wrong. It is not because of rivers in Egypt and jokey stuff like that.

It is because deep down in their unconscious minds, at a visceral level, liberals keep their heads down praying the Woke rosary, venerating their progressive Idols, chanting the ancient Responses, casting out the Satans of patriarchy and white supremacy. Anything but confront the truth.

Because if liberals allowed into their conscious minds even a smidgeon of doubt about the Glorious Truth of their Sacred Destiny and their True Faith in the Arc of History...

Well, it would feel almost as bad as backing into the car across the street.

Christopher Chantrill @chrischantrill runs the go-to site on US government finances, usgovernmentspending.com. Also, get his American Manifesto and his Road to the Middle Class.

Image: Derrick Tyson

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