Why hadn’t the voters given an overwhelming landslide victory to the progressives? In the words of an anonymous author at the ‘Alternet’ website, many of the progressives
don't understand the causes of their own situations and fears and they have shown no interest in finding out. They don’t want to know why they feel the way they do or why they are struggling because they don’t want to admit it is in large part because of the choices they’ve made and the horrible things they’ve allowed themselves to believe.
The big surprise was that many African-American voters, and many Latino voters, chose to vote against Hillary Clinton. The progressives were mystified. Although Hillary styled herself as a progressive who would be a messiah for the Black and Hispanic voters, her assumptions were in fact quite racist: she assumed that African-Americans and Latinos were obliged to vote for her simply because they were African-Americans and Latinos.
This is the essence of progressive ‘identity politics’ - Hillary assumed that people vote a certain way because they belong to a racial or cultural demographic group.
It had not occurred to the progressives that people might vote based on their desires for economic opportunity or their desires for political liberty.
Progressivism contains a hidden but patronizing and condescending racism within its ideology. It assumes that Blacks and Hispanics, rather than seek opportunity in the economic sphere, should and would seek security and dependence.
Because progressivism’s assumption is wrong, Donald Trump received more African-American and Latino votes than Mitt Romney or John McCain.
To dwell among progressives is, in the words of the anonymous ‘Alternet’ author, to listen “to their political rants” and wince “at their racist/bigoted jokes and epithets.” The progressives who present themselves as the ones who will end racism are in fact the ones who perpetuate racism.
A free market economy is the least racist thing in the world. It doesn’t care about the color of one’s skin; it cares about the amount of effort one produces.
Under the tutelage of progressives, American towns “go from a robust economy with well-kept homes and infrastructure to a struggling economy with shuttered businesses, dilapidated homes and a broken-down infrastructure,” as the ‘Alternet’ writer phrases it. Progressives express rage at these conditions, but don’t understand that their policies have caused it, and don’t understand that continuing their policies will only amplify the misery.
Progressives “don’t understand themselves or the reasons for their anger and frustration.”
Instead of data about society and about the changing beliefs of voters, progressivism “has shaped most of their belief systems.” Progressives seek to redistribute wealth, and to regulate the distribution of benefits and opportunities. They failed to internalize that people - of all races, cultures, and religions - value opportunities and freedoms.
“Systems built on a” progressivist “framework are not conducive to introspection, questioning, learning, or change. When you have a belief system built on” progressivism, “it isn’t open to outside criticism, especially by anyone not a member of your tribe and in a position of power.”
In other words, the progressives were certain that Americans wanted them to intervene in economy, in education, and in social trends. They couldn’t, or wouldn’t, believe that voters wanted an energized economy at home, and a strong national image abroad. Progressivism
doesn’t understand itself and will never listen to anyone outside its bubble. It doesn’t matter how “understanding” you are, how well you listen, what language you use … if you are viewed as an outsider, your views will be automatically discounted.
Progressives have so thoroughly internalized their foundational assumptions that when outside voices “present them any information that contradicts their entrenched beliefs, no matter how sound, how unquestionable, how obvious, they will not even entertain the possibility that it might be true.”
For example, progressives simply can’t bring themselves to believe that poverty can be alleviated by deregulating industries - that such deregulation would spur economic growth, creating not only jobs, but jobs that pay well.
Because they can’t conceptualize such dynamics, they were mystified, and remain puzzled, at the results of the November 2016 election.
