Knowing Progressivism Part V - Gaining Control

Have you ever heard a politicians claim how they represent minorities? Have you ever heard a political group accuse their opponents of not representing the working class? Of course you have. It is in common place in today's politics. The problem is that the statement is false. In fact, more often then not, the complete opposite. Modern progressives have become very skilled at assigning their sins onto their enemy and other techniques on distracting and confusing the general public. Lets look at some of these tactics they use in order to gain support.

One method they commonly used to gain favor is to create divisions in society. This is accomplished by assigning people into certain demographics. By separating people into smaller groups that have commonalities, they are able to direct these groups by focusing on what makes them different from the rest of society. This accomplishes two things. First, it allows for the creation of "civic" leaders. These leaders are often put in place through association with progressive politicians. They are able to demonstrate that they are best able to accomplish the goals of the group. People whom may have normally supported a different ideological path, abandon it for the benefit of their demographic. Second, they are able to assign "intolerance" toward the demographic by their opponents. This is done by simply publicly stating it, without ever having to get too specific. Some examples of this are ethnic groups, economical demographics, religion and gender. By encouraging a kind of "warfare" between these separate groups, the progressives place themselves as the only solution for fairness and peace. The reality is that normally it is their opponents that promote fairness by not judging these demographics for having "special needs", and instead treating them as equal members of society.

Progressives can be heard often selling the concept of the "greater good". The idea behind this is create guilt in people for satisfying their individual needs. This is especially useful in large urban centers. There they are easily able to visually display the plight of the poor to convince that only they can improve the situation and create a better society. This is a tool that they have used time and time again. When they do obtain power little to nothing gets down for the "greater good", it is the same systems that help the less fortunate before that are still giving the aid. In fact, a lot of the time the situation deteriorates due to the add cost and inefficiencies associated with government interference.

There is always a crisis to exploit, if there isn't a crisis, invent one. This device has been in consent play since the turn of the 20th century. History has shown that the most effective issue is the economy. In the 1930's, it was the Great Depression, in the mid-1970's it was the cost of energy, and most recently it is the current global recession. When these events occur, progressives claim it is the failing of government and that only they can fix it. Once again, when you trace the causes it has almost always been due to past progressive policies. The Great Depression started as a normal recession, but mistakes made by the Federal Reserve (created by Wilson) caused the money supply to shrink and greatly exacerbated the economic situation. In the late 1970's, President Carter's policies of conservation and price fixing policies, created a decrease of energy supply while demand continued to increase. This made transportation and manufacturing costs, unaffordable. The most resent disaster was caused largely by policies put in place in accordance with the Community Reinvestment Act. This encouraged banks to lower their leading standards with the finical backing of the federal government, eliminating the normal risks associated with financial leading. Coupled with the Federal Reserve ignoring the negative impact of the CRA and the bubble bursts.

Which brings us to "scapegoating". Progressives are masters of placing blame on others, while at the same time ridding themselves of any involvement in the crisis. Take the current recession for example. Progressives will tell us it was caused by ex-President G.W. Bush, or by the failing of capitalism, or by the greed of the banking system. You will never hear them say that it was because of 90 years of progressive policies interfering with the normal course of the economy. They would never admit that there was a level of incompetence in the Federal Reserve. Once again by using this method they are able to convince that they ethically superior and are willing to correct the mistakes of those they use as scapegoats.

One last mechanism used by the progressives worth mentioning, is to encourage civil discord. This is usually accomplished through organizing a youth movement to combat established systems or entities. Normally this unrest is sidelined when the progressives take power, but is activated quickly after that power is lost. The best evidence to support this claim is the recent required reading list by President Obama for student interns. Included in that list is "Rules for Radicals" by Saul Alinsky. Contained in this book are methods for creating discord through activism, regardless if there is a logical basis for the argument.

So now we know some of the mechanisms that progressives used to gain political power, certainly there are more. The reason they must resort to such tactics is simply because what they truly believe would be rejected by the masses, and what they truly believe is that only the best educated people are capable of governing the whole.

Part VI March 24, 2010