and teachers must hold degrees. Policemen attend the police academy. Soldiers, sailors, and marines go through basic training. The lowliest nitwit behind the wheel of a car has to pass a driver’s license test. All a politician has to do is shake hands and tell lies. Oh... and do something else that involves laying down and abandoning all shame for campaign fundraising. (If the personal really were the political, we’d use a different name for it.) Even under the best of circumstances – which I doubt Progressives intend to provide – making everything political is a bad idea. Think about how we use the word “politics.” Are “office politics” ever a good thing? When somebody “plays politics” to get a job or promotion, does he or she deserve it? When we call a colleague “a real politician,” is that a compliment? And democracy is no guarantee against bad political outcomes. Imagine deciding what’s for dinner by family secret ballot. I’ve got three kids and three dogs in my family. We’d be having Oreos and roadkill. Imagine if our clothing were selected by the majority of shoppers, which would be teenage girls. President Trump would be conducting cabinet meetings, signing bills into law, and greeting foreign dignitaries with his midriff exposed. REALLY WANT? PROGRESSIVES
The Progressives aren’t greedy for
can be used to do good – funding charities to promote peace, love, and understanding. Money can be used to do bad – funding charities to promote peace, love, and understanding that are actually fronts for Kremlin Internet hackers. Or money can just be frittered away, farting through silk and going to the bathroom in high cotton. The Progressives aren’t greedy for money. They’re greedy for power. Greed for power is another matter. Of course, power can be used to do good too. The way the power of the Free World defeated the Commies in the Cold War, for example. Except these greedy-for-power Progressives sort of are Commies. Well, not really. Let’s not overstate the case. But if “The Personal Is the Political” is anything to go by, Progressives have some worrisome communalist and collectivist tendencies. And there’s the problem that power is zero- sum, which money is not. If you have more money than I do, that doesn’t stop me from getting more money. In fact, it might even help. But if you have more power than I do... I’m screwed. There’s only so much power. When you have power, it doesn’t matter how much money I have. I can’t buy your goods and services, I have to plead and beg for them. The desire to make people plead and beg... that’s a truly selfish kind of greed. The second reason that Progressives are interested in controlling politics is the low bar to entry. Doctors and lawyers have to pass exams to exercise their authority. Preachers
money. They’re greedy for power.
American Consequences 57
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