“I was not aware of any Communists at Fort Roach*, although there were several gentleman of the extreme left … who called themselves ‘progressives’, a term I subsequently learned was the Party’s code word for true believers.” – Edmund Morris, Pulitzer Prize winner and author of “Dutch: A Memoir of Ronald Reagan”
*The First Motion Picture Unit of the U.S. Army Air Forces (USAAF) during World War II (installed at the dormant Hal Roach Studios in Culver City, California) in the 1940s
As disclosed by biographer Morris, the label progressive is leftist code for an adherent of communism. Yet, communism’s collectivism diametrically opposes American principles embodied by individual liberty. In short, such oil and water philosophies don’t mix. What’s misleading is the root word of progressive happens to be “progress”. So, it’s easy to assume that both terms mean the same good something. (After all, in this technologically driven age, who’s not in favor of advancement?) Yet, progressivism is destructive in its practice, and backward in its orientation. In reality, it fails everywhere it’s tried. By almost every objective measure (with the anomaly of a flourishing Wall Street), President Obama’s progressivism was ruinous for America. Specifically, the economic albatross of a record-shattering 9.3 trillion added to the national debt was no accident. Likewise, leftist leadership turned oil and diamond rich Venezuela into a hellhole where basic necessities, like toilet paper, are scarce. Democrats typically use such nebulous, good sounding language to conceal their real anti-American intentions. For example, their knee-jerk advocacy of “investment” in some fashionable cause. That’s just doublespeak for raising taxes and growing government. Such poison pills only undermine our nation’s solvency, and future prospects. For these wastrels, it’s better to rule in a leftist hell—propagated by their political pandering and cultural divisiveness—then serve in heaven as pro-American constitutionalists.
In the same vein, political movements with the word “Democrat” in them are usually totalitarian: as the Democratic People’s Republic of (North) Korea. Certainly, no lover of civil rights, and human freedoms, are they. For proof of Kim Jong-Un’s liberalism, who can forget the tragic fate of American student 22-year-old Otto Warmbier? For the college prank of foolishly attempting to steal a propaganda poster this future ivy leaguer was sentenced to 15 years of hard labor. Fifteen months later he was returned to the United States in a vegetative state. This coma—the result of likely torture—led to his premature demise; a young man in full flower cut down. What a waste of potential, what a senseless loss of life.
Speaking of destroying life of accused agitators on foreign soil, how about Barack Obama’s Orwellian-style “disposition matrix”? This was the former president’s secret kill list: a database of suspected terrorists to be dispensed with, either targeted in drone strikes, or captured and interrogated. How is that nihilistic system not equivalent to the barbarity of the Kim regime? In fact, some of Mr. Obama’s quarry were even American citizens! The horror is that guilt or innocence didn’t matter. The accused were deprived of their lives without due process: that means no right to legal representation and a fair trial, and no judgment by a jury of one’s peers. From on high, what a megalomaniac thrill to play God!
That’s not the only similarity between the leadership in North Korea and today’s Democrats. Both groups use demonizing rhetoric against their perceived adversaries. Specifically, reported by FoxNews.com on March 7th, the former instruct their people to call Americans bastards. How is Hillary Clinton’s repudiation of Trump supporters as a basket of deplorables any less hateful and derogatory? The 2016 presidential election ended over 16 months ago, but she’s still spewing venomous blame. In India, this foul-mouthed “feminist icon” smeared the married, white women who didn’t support her. Outrageously, she implied they were mindless chattel: incapable of acting independently of their husbands, bosses or sons. So much for this skin-deep “champion of women”.
With all leftists, freedom of thought is vehemently suppressed because it departs from the Party’s official position. On every issue under the sun, conformity of perception is paramount. What liberals say is “right” in this moment can be completely the opposite of what they stood for yesterday. Even writers David Nakamura and Ed O’Keefe of the highly partisan Washington Post acknowledged:
“In 2006, President George W. Bush signed into law the Secure Fence Act, a bill that authorized the construction of hundreds of miles of fencing along the border. That legislation was approved with broad bipartisan support, including, in the Senate, by such Democratic luminaries as Barack Obama (Ill.), Hillary Clinton (N.Y.), Joe Biden (Del.) and Charles E. Schumer (N.Y.), now the Senate minority leader.”
In 2018, that’s The Donald’s border wall. Yet, so afflicted with Trump Derangement Syndrome are they, progressives automatically oppose what they previously supported—under the previous two administrations. As masters of the political flip-flop, hypocrisy and self-interest define them (read: Crooked Hillary).
Thus, proponents of the left—regardless of their particular stripe—demonstrate a jackbooted impulse to dominate others. In common, each ruling class controls via a herd mentality. Unchecked, the Worker’s Party of Korea (WPK) can govern by overt force. Meanwhile, dissembling Democrats weaponize their words to incite protests. Sometimes these “social justice” movements metastasize into mob violence (read: Black Lives Matter). Yet, either by force or by fearmongering the left advances its un-American notions. These exploitative elites preach inclusivity while repressing and actively dividing.
These true believers, as Hillary and Obama, are oblivious to patriotic Americans’ views or problems. They’re insulated creatures of the Washington establishment; buoyed by their hard left extremism and access to governmental influence. In truth, they care nothing for their fellow citizens’ freedoms (particularly the Second Amendment), and actively work to subvert them. As a parallel, their mindset is epitomized in “Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith” (2005) when the Republic becomes a dictatorial galactic empire:
“So this is how liberty dies… with thunderous applause.” – Padmé Amidala (played by Natalie Portman)
As “Democratic” leader Kim Jong-Un is a scourge upon the world stage, progressives are a cancer upon the American body politic. Acting and speaking with the same anti-U.S. malevolence is clear—regardless of what commonality their fuzzy labels are designed to obscure.
David L. Hunter is an Associate Editor at “Capitol Hill Outsider.” He’s on Twitter and blogs at davidlhunter.blogspot.com. He is published in The Washington Post, The Washington Times, “FrontPage Mag,” and extensively in “Patriot Post,” “Canada Free Press” and “American Thinker.”
