IM:
Gentlemen, why are there anti-Trump protests?
AM:
Trump threatens their view of life.
Old Gadfly:
What is it?
AM:
Progressivism.
Old Gadfly: Are you saying Trump opposes progress?
AM:
No. He represents values that are
contrary to progressivism.
Old
Gadfly: Explain.
AM: Progressivism represents the common good,
which is defined by a ruling class and imposed upon the masses by the ruling class.
Old
Gadfly: If the common
good is good for everyone, then why is this not something to be advanced by Americans?
AM: It suffocates the notion of liberty and the
pursuit of each individual’s idea of the American dream. Trump and the Republican Party advance this "common purpose."
IM: We discussed this in a conversation going
into the 2012 Presidential election. It
was based on a dream I had about “dry, parched lips.”
AM: I remember that conversation in Gadfly’s book,
The 2012 Contest in America: Conversations with a Gadfly. The conversation revisited Dostoevsky’s
parable about the Grand Inquisitor, who chastised Jesus Christ for dying on the
cross to set people free to make their own choices, good or bad. The Grand Inquisitor then boasted that people
don’t know how to make good choices, thus they need administrators like the
Grand Inquisitor to make those choices for them.
IM: So, we watch the reaction to the Trump
election and wonder what is going to happen.
Some progressive friends, with whom I have spoken, believe the protests
are spontaneous and reflect fears of an autocracy. Of course, they mimic the demagoguery of
people like Rachel Maddow (for example, see here). Maddow interviewed Cecil Richards of Planned
Parenthood (see here),
who observed that “young people are overwhelmingly progressive.”
Old
Gadfly: We’re all about
the same age and are Cold War veterans.
In June 1957, speaking to a nationwide television audience in America, Nikita
Khrushchev calmly stated:
“. . . I can prophesy that
your grandchildren in America will live under socialism. And please do not be afraid of that. Your grandchildren will not understand how
their grandparents did not understand the progressive nature of a socialist
society” (J. Edgar Hoover in Masters of
Deceit: The Story of Communism in
America and How to Fight It).
AM: Richards is
referring to our grandchildren. And they
are protesting Trump’s election.
IM: They cannot discern Maddow (and other
progressive) propaganda when Trump is called a bigot, racist, homophobe, xenophobe,
misogynist, and so forth. Trump is
opposed to illegal immigration, not immigration. His wife is an immigrant. Trump may have said crass words in response
to crass words from women. Little has
been said about his campaign manager: a woman.
Trump believes in the Constitution and the rule of law—yet he is to be
feared as an autocrat. Many other
examples can be listed to demonstrate how progressives have “painted” a picture
that distorts reality. If progressives
are so morally pure, then why must they distort the truth?
AM: Eric Hoffer, a lifelong longshoreman till
retirement at the age of 65, wrote extensively on mass movements and the role
propaganda played in them. He concluded: “Propaganda does not
deceive people; it merely helps them to deceive themselves.”
Old Gadfly: This describes our progressive grandchildren. While our parents, the greatest generation, fought against socialism (communism and fascism), our generation failed to recognize the “progressive nature of socialism” and how it
took root in America. We can, however, fight
it. But it will not involve
compromise. Compromise for a progressive does not involve adaptation of their worldview; it mandates capitulation by its opponent. As I
have emphasized numerous times, progressives believe the conservative worldview
is not only wrong but immoral.
Progressives do not negotiate with conservatives.
