Monday 20th March 2023

Home » Frontpage » Currently Reading:

Does The Left Even Believe Its Own Lies?

September 21, 2019 Frontpage No Comments

By CHRISTOPHER MANION

Sixty years ago, James Burnham asked a simple question. “Do liberals really believe in liberalism?”
Burnham had every right to ask. He’d been a leftist himself, even a fan of Leon Trotsky. He was thoroughly trained in the dialectic. But by 1960, he’d been a founding editor of National Review for five years. The time was ripe for Burnham to write a book describing what the Left was all about. His title succinctly described liberalism’s goal: The Suicide of the West.
When it comes to liberals, or indeed to adherents of any ideological system, Burnham wrote, “very few . . . bother to inquire into the logical foundations of their day-by-day judgments and rules of conduct, nor is there any reason why many people should.”
Sure — why bother? Such an inquiry, then and now, would merely expose the sad facts at the foundation of leftism. At the heart of it all lies the necessary and indispensable principle of contradiction. What the Left said yesterday might differ radically from what the Left says tomorrow. That’s part of the plan.
Burnham wrote sixty years ago, but the truth doesn’t change. That’s especially true of the dialectic, which insists that everything, including truth, can change whenever the ideologue finds it convenient. Today we are witnessing the dreary, predictable spectacle once more. After 2,500 years, liberal humanity has “progressed” to the point that we can now prosper by sending Aristotle’s principle of non-contradiction to the dustbin of history.
Orwell calls this principle the “Memory Hole”: The Left demands that you forget what they said yesterday. After all, they’re going to contradict it today. If they can’t change it, they’ll deny it tomorrow.
In 1960, Burnham carefully parsed the liberalism of his day. On inspection they boil down to one: “We liberals are superior and we should be in charge so we can change things for the better.”
For today’s liberals, it doesn’t matter how much liberalism has succeeded in polluting American life in the past 60 years. Like Karl Marx, today’s liberals hate the past, condemn the present, and promise a better future. They will bestow that better life upon us, of course, only if they are allowed to acquire power and keep it. Naturally, they have to deny reality to do so.
Lyndon Johnson’s massive expansion of government was everything that liberals demanded, yet it changed nothing. Why? Half-measure socialism hasn’t worked, today’s liberals insist, so we need full-blown socialism that will.
LBJ’s Great Society programs spent 23 trillion dollars getting us to the state of affairs that this generation of liberals condemns today. That sum happens to be pretty close to the amount of our country’s national debt, but they don’t want to talk about it. That’s because, when its principles are put into action, the actual results of the liberal agenda are invariably a miserable failure.
In fact, the Left’s failure was so unpopular with the American people in the years since Burnham wrote that liberals had to change their very name. They realized that the term “liberal” itself had become an epithet.
Meanwhile, more Americans than ever began calling themselves “conservatives.”
What’s a leftist to do? Why, change things, of course. So the American Left reached back to the age of Woodrow Wilson to baptize themselves anew as “progressives.” And why not? Like Wilson, they promised to save the world. Wilson promised to “Make the World Safe for Democracy,” but our leftists today are more humble: They simply want to make the United States safe for Democrats.

We Support The Constitution — Except When We Don’t

To see how the dialectic works in action, consider the Left’s view of the Supreme Court.
First, a brief history.
“We are under a Constitution, but the Constitution is what the judges say it is,” said New York Gov. Charles Evans Hughes in 1907 (Hughes later became Chief Justice of the Supreme Court). This view was affirmed in 1958, when Chief Justice Earl Warren could confidently declare it a “settled doctrine” that not the Constitution, but the Supreme Court’s interpretation of the Constitution, is the “supreme law of the land” (Cooper v. Aaron).
Liberals cheered, while Ike later called his nomination of Warren his “biggest mistake.”
But the cheering had just begun.
In 1962, the Court declared that voluntary, nondenominational prayer in public schools was unconstitutional (Engel v. Vitale).
In 1963, the Court declared that school-sponsored Bible reading was unconstitutional (Abington School District v. Schempp).
In 1973, the Court declared that state laws banning abortion were unconstitutional (Roe v. Wade).
In 1980, the Court declared that posting the Ten Commandments on the wall of public school classrooms was unconstitutional (Stone v. Graham).
In 2003, the Court declared that state laws criminalizing sodomy were unconstitutional (Lawrence v. Texas).
In 2015, the Court declared that state laws defining marriage as the union of one man and one woman were unconstitutional (Obergefell v. Hodges).
Every one of these decisions rejected the views of the majority of Americans, defied the natural law, and offended the civic virtue of a moral population. Yet the Left cheered — even as they pretended to be the vanguard of “democracy.”
But wait, there’s more. In recent months we have learned that the “Progressive Left” wants to destroy the American constitutional republic altogether. Presidential candidates are falling over one another advocating the abolition of the Electoral College, ballot security, and even laws restricting voting to American citizens.
How to achieve these goals? The Supreme Court, of course. That’s why the new best bright idea of America’s Democrat Left is to pack the Supreme Court, and then cheer when the Court nullifies the Constitution.
What to do until then? Nullify the Supreme Court.
After all, packing the Court can happen only after the Left takes over the House, the Senate, and the White House. In the meantime, in one of the most dramatic dialectic maneuvers in recent history, the American Left has turned against the United States Supreme Court.
Last year, Christine Blasey Ford accused Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh of sexual assault so she could put “an asterisk next to” Kavanaugh’s name before he “takes a scalpel” to Roe v. Wade, according to Ford’s lawyer Debra Katz. The Daily Caller published a video of Katz making this allegation in a public appearance. In the meantime, The Federalist reported that Ford’s own father strongly supported Kavanaugh’s nomination. Would he have done so had he believed the nominee had assaulted his daughter?
Yet the revolutionaries speak as one: Forget the “asterisk” — off with their heads!
So the Left — call it Liberal, call it Progressive, call it Socialist — cheers the Supreme Court for the sixty years since Cooper v. Aaron — until suddenly it doesn’t. What was true yesterday isn’t true tomorrow. It isn’t lying, it’s just the dialectic.
In 1984, George Orwell describes Winston’s bewilderment at a rally culminating the celebration of Hate Week. A leader of the Inner Party has whipped the crowd into a frenzy of hatred against Eurasia, Oceania’s permanent enemy. Halfway through the tirade, he is handed a slip of paper. Without missing a beat, “in midsentence, not only without a pause, but without even breaking the syntax,” he continues his rant, but suddenly Eastasia is the enemy, while Eurasia has been Oceania’s steadfast ally forever.
The crowd rages on to new heights. Where did the “Hate Eurasia” signs surrounding the crowd come from? Why, they must be the work of the enemy’s saboteurs!
This is the plan. “We never said that the Supreme Court has the last word,” they will howl. “Kavanaugh and his agents are saboteurs! Say no to the Supreme Court!”
No, for the Left, Hate Week never ends.

Share Button

2019 The Wanderer Printing Co.

Twitter Feed

Biden administration pats itself on the back for shooting down China balloon - meanwhile southern border is wide open to the Chinese.

House Republicans approved 2 #ProLife measures.

The first measure would ban #Abortion on babies born alive and require the babies be given medical care and treatment. The other measure condemned a spurt of growing attacks against crisis pregnancy centers.

House Republicans Pass Pro-Life Bills

House Republicans on Jan. 11 approved two pro-life measures. The first measure passed by the House would ban abortion ...

www.theepochtimes.com

Load More...

Vatican and USCCB leave transgender policy texts unpublished

While U.S. bishops have made headlines for releasing policies addressing gender identity and pastoral ministry, guidelines on the subject have been drafted but not published by both the U.S. bishops’ conference and the Vatican’s doctrinal office, leaving diocesan bishops to…Continue Reading

Biden says Pope Francis told him to continue receiving communion, amid scrutiny over pro-abortion policies

President Biden said that Pope Francis, during their meeting Friday in Vatican City, told him that he should continue to receive communion, amid heightened scrutiny of the Catholic president’s pro-abortion policies.  The president, following the approximately 90-minute-long meeting, a key…Continue Reading

Federal judge rules in favor of Gov. DeSantis’ mask mandate ban

MIAMI (LifeSiteNews) – A federal judge this week handed Florida Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis another legal victory on his mask mandate ban for schools. On Wednesday, Judge K. Michael Moore of the Southern District of Florida denied a petition from…Continue Reading

The Eucharist should not be received unworthily, says Nigerian cardinal

Priests have a duty to remind Catholics not to receive the Eucharist in a state of serious sin and to make confession easily available, a Nigerian cardinal said at the International Eucharistic Congress on Thursday. “It is still the doctrine…Continue Reading

Donald Trump takes a swipe at Catholics and Jews who did not vote for him

Donald Trump complained about Catholics and Jews who did not vote for him in 2020. The former president made the comments in a conference call featuring religious leaders. The move could be seen to shore up his religious conservative base…Continue Reading

Y Gov. Kathy Hochul Admits Andrew Cuomo Covered Up COVID Deaths, 12,000 More Died Than Reported

When it comes to protecting people from COVID, Andrew Cuomo is already the worst governor in America. New York has the second highest death rate per capita, in part because he signed an executive order putting COVID patients in nursing…Continue Reading

Prayers For Cardinal Burke . . . U.S. Cardinal Burke says he has tested positive for COVID-19

VATICAN CITY (CNS) — U.S. Cardinal Raymond L. Burke said he has tested positive for the virus that causes COVID-19. In an Aug. 10 tweet, he wrote: “Praised be Jesus Christ! I wish to inform you that I have recently…Continue Reading

Democrats Block Amendment Banning Late-Term Abortions, Stopping Abortions Up to Birth

Senate Democrats have blocked an amendment that would ban abortions on babies older than 20 weeks. During consideration of the multi-trillion spending package, pro-life Louisiana Senator John Kennedy filed an amendment to ban late-term abortions, but Democrats steadfastly support killing…Continue Reading

Transgender student wins as U.S. Supreme Court rebuffs bathroom appeal

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday handed a victory to a transgender former public high school student who waged a six-year legal battle against a Virginia county school board that had barred him from using the bathroom corresponding…Continue Reading

New York priest accused by security guard of assault confirms charges have now been dropped

NEW YORK, June 17, 2021 (LifeSiteNews) — A New York priest has made his first public statement regarding the dismissal of charges against him.  Today Father George W. Rutler reached out to LifeSiteNews and other media today with the following…Continue Reading

21,000 sign petition protesting US Catholic bishops vote on Biden, abortion

More than 21,000 people have signed a letter calling for U.S. Catholic bishops to cancel a planned vote on whether President Biden should receive communion.  Biden, a Catholic, supports abortion rights and has long come under attack from some Catholics over that…Continue Reading

Bishop Gorman seeks candidates to fill two full time AP level teaching positions for the 2021-2022 school year in the subject areas of Calculus/Statistics and Physics

Bishop Thomas K. Gorman Regional Catholic School is a college preparatory school located in Tyler, Texas. It is an educational ministry of the Catholic Diocese of Tyler led by Bishop Joseph Strickland. The sixth through twelfth grade school provides a…Continue Reading

Untitled 5 Untitled 2

Attention Readers:

  Welcome to our website. Readers who are familiar with The Wanderer know we have been providing Catholic news and orthodox commentary for 150 years in our weekly print edition.


  Our daily version offers only some of what we publish weekly in print. To take advantage of everything The Wanderer publishes, we encourage you to su
bscribe to our flagship weekly print edition, which is mailed every Friday or, if you want to view it in its entirety online, you can subscribe to the E-edition, which is a replica of the print edition.
 
  Our daily edition includes: a selection of material from recent issues of our print edition, news stories updated daily from renowned news sources, access to archives from The Wanderer from the past 10 years, available at a minimum charge (this will be expanded as time goes on). Also: regularly updated features where we go back in time and highlight various columns and news items covered in The Wanderer over the past 150 years. And: a comments section in which your remarks are encouraged, both good and bad, including suggestions.
 
  We encourage you to become a daily visitor to our site. If you appreciate our site, tell your friends. As Catholics we must band together to rediscover our faith and share it with the world if we are to effectively counter a society whose moral culture seems to have no boundaries and a government whose rapidly extending reach threatens to extinguish the rights of people of faith to practice their religion (witness the HHS mandate). Now more than ever, vehicles like The Wanderer are needed for clarification and guidance on the issues of the day.

Catholic, conservative, orthodox, and loyal to the Magisterium have been this journal’s hallmarks for five generations. God willing, our message will continue well into this century and beyond.

Joseph Matt
President, The Wanderer Printing Co.

Untitled 1

Catechism

Today . . .

">Cardinals Burke . . . SAME-SEX UNION BLESSINGS?

Longtime teacher fired after discussing God in classroom, challenging ‘evil’ LGBT school policy

(LifeSiteNews) — A longtime public school teacher in Idaho was let go earlier this month for being unafraid to mention God in the classroom and voicing his objections to a pro-LGBT policy designed to promote “transgender” ideologies among young people.  Ian O’Connell, a Catholic teacher who served as a substitute in the public institutions of Caldwell School District for over 20 years, spoke on February 13 about a proposed “gender identity and sexual orientation” policy that…Continue Reading

Murder investigation underway in shooting death of LA Auxiliary Bishop O’Connell

The shooting death of Los Angeles Auxiliary Bishop David G. O’Connell Saturday is being investigated as a homicide, authorities have confirmed. “This incident is being handled as a murder investigation,” the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department (LASD) said in a statement Sunday. No additional details were released. “We learned early this morning from the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s office that they have determined that the d

FBI whistleblower releases docs showing agency is surveilling ‘Radical’ Latin Mass Catholics

RICHMOND, Virginia (LifeSiteNews) — A document released by an FBI whistleblower indicates the agency plans to intensify its “assessment” and “mitigation” of “Radical Traditionalist Catholics” over the next 12 to 24 months due to alleged concerns that “white nationalists” are increasingly making common cause online with attendees of the Latin Mass.

MN Catholics Pass Radical Abortion Bill

SAINT PAUL, Minn. (ChurchMilitant.com) – Catholic legislators have been instrumental in the nation’s most radical abortion bill becoming state law.  The so-called Protect Reproductive Options Act, or PRO Act, allows for the killing of unborn babies up until birth — by any method, with no maternal age restrictions and for any reason. Minnesota’s Senate passed the lethal legislation on Saturday, following 15 hours of debate. As promised, Gov. Tim Walz, a two-term Democrat, signed the bill into law on Tuesday afternoon.  “We are enacting the most extreme bill…Continue Reading

300th Catholic Church Attacked Since 2020

(Wanderer Editor’s Note: This March 13 article is reprinted from CatholicVote.org with their permission. All rights reserved.) + + (CV News Feed) — An act of vandalism against a Catholic church in Connecticut over the weekend marked a grim milestone: The 300th known attack on a Catholic church in America since the spring of 2020.Police…Continue Reading

St. Veronica And Face-Face Human Relationships

By DONALD DeMARCO The sixth of the 14 Stations of the Cross tells us that “Veronica wipes the face of Jesus.” According to tradition, Christ left an imprint of His face on the veil (or cloth) that she used. Veronica looked upon Christ’s bloodstained face with sympathy, Christ responded with an expression of His loving…Continue Reading

Destroy The Mexican Drug Cartels

By JOSH HAMMER The tragic killing of two U.S. citizens this past week in the border town of Matamoros, Mexico, should, in a just world, refocus American attention on the glaring problem of transnational drug cartels’ de facto control of large swaths of our perilously porous southern border.That the two Americans killed may have been…Continue Reading

“God Really Intervened”. . . How A Priest Escaped From His Kidnappers In Haiti

By DIEGO LOPEZ MARINA SANTO DOMINGO (CNA) — Fr. Antoine Macaire Christian Noah, a Claretian priest from Cameroon, escaped unharmed from a crime gang that had kidnapped him in Haiti last month and has been taken to another country for his safety.On March 2, Fr. Fausto Cruz Rosa, major superior of the Antilles Delegation of…Continue Reading

Utah Legislature Passes Bill Banning All Abortion Clinics

By MICAIAH BILGER SALT LAKE CITY (LifeNews) — A bill to ban abortion facilities in Utah passed the state legislature Thursday, March 3 by an overwhelming majority.After the Utah Senate voted 22-6, the bill now heads to Gov. Spencer Cox, a pro-life Republican, who said he supports the bill, the Associated Press reports.Sponsored by State…Continue Reading

Advertisement

Our Catholic Faith (Section B of print edition)

The Glory Of The Son Of God

By FR. ROBERT ALTIER Fifth Sunday Of Lent (YR A) Readings: Ezek. 37:12-14Romans 8:8-11John 11:1-45 In the first reading today, God promises us through the Prophet Ezekiel that He will open the graves of His people and have them rise from their graves. This is the promise of the Resurrection. This needs to be made clear because in the Gospel…Continue Reading

Catholic Replies

Editor’s Note: This series on the Bible is from the book Catholicism & Scripture. Please feel free to use the series for high schoolers or adults. We will continue to welcome your questions for the column as well. Please see the contact information at the end of the column. Special Course On Catholicism And Scripture (Chapter 15) After some fifty…Continue Reading

The Rampage Of The Lawless

By FR. KEVIN M. CUSICK One supposes that the truth becomes “safe” for liars once they control the levers of power and thus can take credit for finally disseminating it, or allowing it be to spread. The power of elected office or bureaucratic privilege is instrumentalized for its own perpetuation at whim through a manipulation of the facts. We are…Continue Reading

The Conditions For Mortal Sin Are Not That Hard To Meet

By MSGR. CHARLES POPE (Editor’s Note: Msgr. Charles Pope posted this commentary on March 5 and it is reprinted here with permission. Msgr. Pope is the pastor of Holy Comforter-St. Cyprian in Washington, D.C.) + + Recent and public conversations about the nature of mortal sin, the reception of Holy Communion and worthiness to receive the Eucharist have shown how…Continue Reading

Reject Evil And Live For The Son Of God

By FR. ROBERT ALTIER Fourth Sunday Of Lent (YR A) Readings: 1 Samuel 16:1b, 6-7, 10-13Eph. 5:8-14John 9:1-41 In the first reading today, we see one of the most typical of human actions: judging by appearances. God sends Samuel to anoint the king He has chosen. Samuel does not know who the man is, but he does know that he…Continue Reading

Crushed But Unbroken . . . The Martyrdom Of St. Margaret Clitherow

By RAY CAVANAUGH The late-1500s were a tough time for Catholics in England, where the Reformation was in full gear. A 1581 law prohibited Catholic religious ceremonies. And a 1584 Act of Parliament mandated that all Catholic priests leave the country or else face execution. Some chose to remain, however, so they could continue serving the faithful.Also taking huge risks…Continue Reading

Catholic Heroes . . . St. Bernardine Of Siena (1380-1444)

By DEB PIROCH The year Siena lost its famed St. Catherine, it gained a new future saint; St. Bernardine Albizeschi, later St. Bernardine of Siena, OFM, known as the “Apostle of Italy.” He was a great friar preacher who would win souls for God.Being born in 1380 of a noble family did not protect him from heartache, but the prayers…Continue Reading

Advertisement(2)