What do our nation’s self-styled Progressives want for our future? Clues in past few days’ news ain’t pretty. Heeding the advice of Democrat political advisor Rahm Emanuel, they will not let the Corona virus crisis go to waste; rather, they are using it as part and parcel of a broad political strategy that bodes good for no one but themselves.
The Progressive Policy Institute sees in emergency measures to keep the US economy alive not a multi-trillion-dollar bill that will have to be repaid by our children and grandchildren but, according to their senior economist, “A great opportunity to try to provide labor protections low-wage workers didn’t have before.” Her attitude is mirrored in remarks of Progressive politicians and think-tank members who argue that, since Covid-19 has “landed hardest on the neediest,” massive new social programs are needed to make certain that after this pandemic has passed, the needy are no longer so – despite the continual failure of such programs to achieve their lofty goals in the past.
Similarly, Democrats in Congress delayed another tranche of payments to America’s small businesses to keep employees on their payrolls because they wanted large sums to be diverted to organizations and institutions that have been generous Democrat supporters in the past; because they wanted to force small businesses to offer paid leave and sick leave; because they wanted to allow easier unionization and other Progressive desiderata. They still wish to punish small businesses because these embody independence and individualism, anathema to those lusting for broader government authority. And their presidential candidate thinks banks are evil. He said so. Nothing about any of this allows the nation’s businesses – which actually make the money that will be confiscated to pay for any future Progressive utopia – to sleep well at night.
Elsewhere, Google and Apple have announced smart phone apps which will make “contact tracking” of those infected with Covid-19 easier by providing lists of other phones their owners have been near over a range of time. Presumably these aps are similar to those developed for the Chinese government, and used to track residents of Wuhan – and elsewhere. Can they be turned off? That would defeat the purpose, wouldn’t it? A more insidious surveillance device is hard to imagine – in the name of public health, of course.
Even distance learning has its charms for those who believe citizens have no right to privacy save where abortion is concerned. In Nashville, Tennessee, one of the questions posed in a daily student checklist is “Do you feel safe at home?” offering the state direct access to our least mature minds. Parents of even-normally-volatile teens everywhere should feel hair rising on the backs of their necks as they consider the implications of that question.
Progressives are clearly spreading their canvas before the gale of pestilence and economic wreckage to follow, hoping to ride the storm to control of both Congress and the Presidency. Thus ensconced, they will use these dual crises to advance their vision of a nation in which the most successful become enemies of the people, the productive are made petitioners, the state and its protected classes are valued above liberty; where surveillance and public opprobrium are instruments of policy, and where, as in California, a single party comes to control political and social life. With the Progressive “Vanguard of the Masses” in charge of course – because they think themselves wiser, more compassionate and better-looking than we.
Remember that in November.
