Fighting for Utopia

As I said: Wrong. Wrong. Wrong. Unfortunately, for many Liberals it's not enough to merely be wrong: Have you ever noticed how angry and hateful the Left tends to be? It’s hard to ignore their vitriol. Who do we see at all of the demonstrations against this thing or that thing? Whether it’s globalization or global warming, whose faces do we always see, wild-eyed and contorted with rage? Who do we see throwing fits and tantrums when people who don't share their views disagree? Who opposes every war yet resorts to violence when their chanting and infantile emotionalism fails to win the argument?

I think a big part of Leftist rage stems from the fact that Liberals tend to confuse their Utopian wishes (how they feel things should be) with the realities of our Constitution-based society. However, because they have such an overwhelming presence in the media -- always positive! -- and their worldview is repeatedly expressed in a calculated and coordinated fashion, they are consistently portrayed as enlightened (or “nuanced”) thinkers. The fact that a great many of their “thoughts” are contrary to mainstream thought, or downright unconstitutional, is incidental and rarely mentioned in the propaganda that passes for media “content.”

No small amount of irony resides in the fact that the Left are the self-professed defenders of our civil liberties. Free speech? Only when it is their voice to be heard. Tolerance? Only when it is their ideology being espoused. Woe unto them that strays from the leftist worldview.

I thought that perhaps this perception, on my part, was clouded; that it was merely an opinion, with no basis in fact. I allowed that it was entirely possible that my judgment was compromised by certain long-held beliefs of mine -- beliefs based on observation and experience, but beliefs nonetheless -- until I saw the results of several American National Election Studies (ANES).

The ANES, generated by the University of Michigan, surveys American adults using what political analysts call “feeling thermometers.” The participants are asked to rate various groups of people on a scale of 0-100. In general, a neutral response elicits a score of about 70; forty is considered a “cold” temperature, while 20 indicates a very strong dislike.

Now, because the “consensus” view -- particularly strong in academia and the media -- suggests that to be a political conservative is to have a hostile intolerance towards those with opposing viewpoints and lifestyles, while political liberals are inherently more tolerant and embrace diversity, I was curious: Do the data support this assumption?

The truth is, both conservatives and liberals are intolerant of one another, politically. Still, the numbers do give us some insight into which group is more intolerant. For example, those who identified themselves as “conservative” or “very conservative” gave liberals an average thermometer score of 39; liberals, in turn, gave conservatives a score of 38. Those who identify themselves as “extremely conservative” gave the left a score of 27; the “extremely liberal” group gave the right a score of 23.

When we look at the scores given for the President and the Vice-President, we see more of a divergence. In the 1998 ANES survey, both Bill Clinton and Al Gore received an average temperature of 45 from those who called themselves “extremely conservative.” Meanwhile, in the 2004 ANES survey, those who called themselves “extremely liberal” gave George Bush an average temperature of 15 and Dick Cheney a 16. Of particular interest in the POTUS-VP numbers is that, while just 28% of the far-right gave Clinton a temperature of zero, and only 10% gave Gore a zero -- remember, this is after the President had been exposed as a perjuring adulterer who lied to the American people on national television –- fully 60% of the far-left gave Bush and Cheney the absolute lowest score: zero.

To add further perspective, consider that when Saddam Hussein was alive he received an average score of eight from all respondents, across all groups.

Still not sure that lefties tend to be more intolerant when it comes to those who disagree with their worldview? Google “I hate Republicans” and “I hate Democrats.” In January 2008, there were nearly 22,000 hits for “I hate Republicans,” and 11,000 for “I hate Democrats.” In October 2004, just prior the presidential election, the score was nearly 10 to one.
So much for nuance.

There certainly does seem to be a great deal of anger and hostility on the Left. There must be a lot of resentment, as well: In their quest to remake America in their own image, Liberals protest against virtually everything, often violently; they perpetrate voter fraud by sending stand-ins to vote for people who have died, moved, or were fraudulently registered in the first place; they argue that felons and illegal aliens should be allowed to vote (see also: “The Big Tent”); they steal Republican election signs from front yards; they throw bricks through Republican campaign headquarters; and they send out operatives to slash the tires or otherwise disable the vehicles of volunteers working to get registered Republican voters to the polls on election day.

In sum, the Left will lie, cheat, steal, harangue, harass, and destroy…whether they get their way, or not. The constant fighting and turmoil must be terribly frustrating, on at least some level -– which may explain a finding in the March 2008 Harper’s Index that notes that 38 percent of Democrats rate their mental health as “excellent” (versus 58 percent of Republicans).

REFERENCES & ADDITIONAL READING

“Liberal Hatemongers” by Arthur C. Brooks, The Wall Street Journal, 1/08
http://www.electionstudies.org/
www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/1756923/posts
“Voter Fraud Showdown” by John Fun, The Wall Street Journal, 1/9/08