Thomas Sowell knows progressives.....so well

Thomas Sowell wrote another brilliant column last week. It appeared a day after I posted a note on the "one percenter" assault Kristi endured during a family mercy mission to Alamogordo in the middle of the month.

Sowell said one of the things that attracted him to the political Left as a young man was a belief that leftists were for “the people.” He then began to lament what a delusion that actually was. He said it was an “inescapable fact” that many leading thinkers on the left had only contempt for “the people.”

Sowell said this has been true for quite some time and then began citing examples from the 18th century to the present. He said he had discovered over the years that leading thinkers on the so-called “right” had more respect for ordinary people than people on the left who dared to speak in their name.

He gave examples of why leftists like Rousseau, Karl Marx, George Bernard Shaw and modern day American Progressives see “the people” as being best off when playing the role of sheep in a world while they themselves serve as their shepherds.

Thomas Sowell

Even more disturbing and very much in line with my own personal experiences, Sowell said the leading thinkers on the left usually regard those who disagree with them as being not merely factually wrong, but also morally repugnant. He cited the visceral hostility shown towards Sarah Palin by present-day liberals, along with the gutter level to which some will descend in expressing it, as just one sign of a mindset on the left that goes back more than two centuries. Sowell cited example after example of their incredible self righteousness and then summarized his main point this way: "The vision of the Left is not just a vision of the world. For many, it is also a vision of themselves — a very flattering vision of people trying to save the planet, rescue the exploited, create social justice, and otherwise be on the side of the angels. This is an exalting vision that few are ready to give up, or to risk on a roll of the dice, which is what submitting it to the test of factual evidence amounts to. Maybe that is why there are so many fact-free arguments on the left, whether on gun control, minimum wages, or innumerable other issues — and why they react so viscerally to those who challenge their vision."

Kristi and I have had more experiences with leftists than we have cared to have. And they mirror those of Thomas Sowell’s. Better than everything else Sowell explains the American Progressive’s complete hatred for church-going Christian conservatives. Who else could present such a threat to their claim as sole occupiers of the moral high ground of our society. Maybe it is no coincidence they use the language of the "occupy" movement to make those who disagree with them feel evil.