William J. Bennett joined FNC as a contributor in 2017. He is the former U.S. secretary of education, under President Ronald Reagan and the nation’s first director of the Office of Drug Control Policy, under President George H.W. Bush.
Posted on 02/04/2019 12:43:57 PM PST by Oldeconomybuyer
It’s been two years since the end of the Obama presidency and in that span, the mainstream Democratic Party has made an extreme shift to the far left. In 2019 the Democrats have put their weight behind increased taxes, universal health care, open borders, and third-trimester abortions.
How do we account for this radical trend?
A journalist friend of mine reports that his generally liberal college son was somewhat somnolent and indifferent during the Obama years, lulled into quiescence by liberal policies and moderate talk. Then came Trump. A huge splash of cold water hit his face and he and his cohorts were galvanized into angry action.
Flannery O’Connor wrote that sometimes you have to, “push back against the age as hard as it pushes against you.” Trump pushed hard, and the liberals have become the left, pushing back even harder.
The problem is that their blind indignation for President Trump is clouding their judgment and pushing them to the brink. They’re punching back at their magnified perception of Trump, not his actual policies.
Trump’s policies are conservative, but mostly traditionally so with a good dash of moderation and compromise.
This isn’t a Newtonian ‘equal and opposite reaction’ by the Democrats. It’s unequal and opposite and may cost them dearly.
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
William J. Bennett joined FNC as a contributor in 2017. He is the former U.S. secretary of education, under President Ronald Reagan and the nation’s first director of the Office of Drug Control Policy, under President George H.W. Bush.
Dr. Bennett, I humbly disagree. This is the planned next step for the Left. The next step in a process they set in motion decades ago. Almost certainly they would still be here today, Trump or No Trump.
They’ve been headed ‘LEFT’ ever since Wilson and FDR..........................
A huge splash of cold water hit his face and he and his cohorts were galvanized into angry action.
Oh son, what surprises await you
Signed,
A_Former_Democrat
That guy is a few steps behind on everything.
But to use the same analogy...
wasn’t Obama a “huge splash of cold water in the face” that woke up anyone who was patriotic or traditional?
So, Obama is what got Trump elected
I agree with you. The Democrats have step-by-step, continued their left turn. They usually do it in increments so the brain-dead voters can be sucked in along the way. First it was abortions. Then it was late term abortions, then it was letting babies die who were born live from an abortion, then it was selling baby parts from abortions, now it's all-out infanticide, along with selling baby parts.There's a method to their madness. I just hope they all get their just deserves at the appropriate time.
Yes, not many are aware of how far back this political movement to the hard left
goes.
I agree with you. This is who they have always been, they just don't try to hide it anymore.
Absolutely right. This has been a long term step-by-step program, mostly incremental so as not to alarm the hoi polloi. Now that the compromised “educational” system has turned out a generation or two of indoctrinated young people of voting age, they’ve decided it’s time to pull back the curtain and show their real motives...and their sharp teeth.
The left is having a temper tantrum because they didn’t get their way.
Let's hope.
An interesting read here:
It’s a matter of principles. Compromise on implementation is possible (even easy) when we share principles. Compromise is almost impossible when there are no shared principles to base negotiation on.
From the founding of our country until 20-30 years ago, almost every adult agreed on a shared set of principles (consent of the governed, natural rights, etc). The set of principles we agreed on has been shrinking and others (e.g. marxism) have been gaining support for a century, but Clinton and Gingrich could always go back to shared principles, then explain any compromise to “both sides” in terms of principles their side agreed with.
Progressives finally raised a generation with a majority that shares NO principles with previous generations. We have nowhere to even start negotiating compromise. And language comes from basic beliefs so we aren’t even speaking the same language when we try to work out disagreements (i.e. the meaning of “racism”)
This was always the plan by the Left.
They were just waiting for the right time.
Hillary becoming President would have been the right time.
They were already all set to do this with Hillary in office. The shock was their plans to rig her election didn’t work.
But, Trump got there first. He is now flicking the fleas and blow-torching the garbage.
Right now, the leftists are still all worked up with no place to expend their energy that they had planned to give to HRH Hillary - so instead we get screeds from fakenews and the occasional governor witnessing to the sheer beauty of the dead human baby.
Sharp left turn is correct.
Bennett is old GOPe.
I disagree. Obama did not endorse ocasio-cortez because he understands that the incrementism has to be taken very slowly. Because of their hatred of trump, the left has jumped several steps ahead of where they should be right now.
There’s also the question of whether this incrementalism can go on indefinitely before people finally say enough is enough. Socialism has never been successfully implemented anywhere, and as much power as the left has in this country, I would think that the American people would be the most resistant to go along with a Venezuela type Chavez government.
Sure, the left can brainwash our kids and make them cynical and jaded and ignorant. But that doesn’t mean that their grand plan is going to work in the end.
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