Cutting right to the chase: Leftists are suckers for dictatorial authority. Early into the COVID hysteria, I was walking alone and outdoors. A woman wearing a face mask saw me coming towards her and immediately started bawling me out for not covering my face. To this day I often see people wearing face masks while driving alone in their cars. Remember the twenty-second rule for hand washing? Whatever happened to that?

It is a tyrant’s paradise where people are obsessed with obeying the rules. And here we are. Every year an extremely thick book of new rules is issued by our government… otherwise, we might actually have to think for ourselves.

This brings to mind my chance meeting with a woman who is now our county superintendent of schools, while she was door knocking for her campaign. Her bad luck. I told her that I supported school choice so schools would have to compete for students and even faculty… just like colleges and universities do. She gave the standard leftist response: “Many parents just aren’t competent enough to choose schools for their children.” Avoiding a knock-down, drag-out… I avoided asking her if nameless, faceless bureaucrats would be better at doing this? Parents at least have motivation on their side. They seriously want to do the right thing regardless of their ability.

In addition to obedient followers, this set-up also requires leaders who are both cynical and capable. Hence our current dilemma. Like them or not, we’ve run out of that kind of talent. How else can one ever explain the spontaneous implosion of Joseph R. Biden… and then the selection-by-default of the giggler-in-chief Kamala Harris? This deficit is pervasive throughout the modern world. In addition to our own statist clones, European “leaders” are also trying to dictate to the Israelis that they stop trying to defend themselves from imminent annihilation -- while they are telling Hamas to stop trying to exterminate their Jewish neighbors. They might as well try writing very angry letters to the editor.

Consistent with their compulsive obedience to “authority,” leftists also eschew the personal processes of study and analysis. They prefer, instead, to let “experts” explain to them the details of reality. Should someone disagree with their dogma, that person is considered to be either ignorant or arbitrarily argumentative. Living in a deep blue city in a deep blue state, I am often told that my opinions are not really serious -- but rather mischievous attempts at provocation -- for the sake of my own perverse amusement. They have little, if any, tolerance for legitimate disagreement… but I do kind of enjoy watching them make fools of themselves.

Just now, while walking along in my ‘hood, I got into a discussion about this year’s election. The January 6th “event” is the albatross they couldn’t help but hang around Trump’s neck… even though he didn’t do anything to incite violence other than be who he is. Then my nearby neighbor, a retired attorney, brought up Trump’s favoritism towards the rich and powerful through tax cuts. I had to tell him that official IRS statistics show that the top 5% of income earners pay over 60% of the income tax being collected. He argued “What about the tax rates?” I said, “Who cares about the rates? It’s the amount of money being collected that matters.” Talk about study and analysis… let alone tolerance and inclusion. And, of course, adherence to dogma.

Image: AT via Magic Studio