Liberals and Progressives: It's not too late to save yourselves.

An open letter to American “Liberals”* and Progressives:

"Tea Party people" aren't "just Islamaphobic, but really xenophobic, I mean basically they are, they believe in sort of white, middle-America gun-toting. I mean, it's scary. They're seriously racist, racist people."
–Former NPR executive Ron Schiller

If you see a troubling resurgence of bigotry, racism, and xenophobia in the United States, and you truly believe in the righteousness of democracy, of the will of the people, then you have to accept that people whom you perceive as seriously racist and xenophobic have every right, when they are in the majority, to try to control the ship of state to their own ends**.

If you cheered the mob when it was behind you and your agenda, you really ought to enjoy the ride when the mob swings against you. The majority, and those adept at manipulating them, will do as they please. Such is the nature of the mob. You were warned. You knew better.

You celebrated your 'victories' while erecting a strong, activist state in the service of your various agendas. You have given tacit, if not explicit, approval for the cancerous growth of government power in the last century. You have allowed or promoted the creation of a compliant, unquestioning, politically and morally ignorant citizenry. A citizenry increasingly subservient to and dependent on that growing power. And that citizenry may turn against you. You helped create the very instrument of your own oppression.

You felt satisfied and empowered when you thought you were firmly in control of public schools. Now you howl with derision when your political opponents push for and win policy changes promoting their agenda. But it's always been a battle between competing agendas, hasn't it? Once you accept social control of the classroom, it's just a matter of whose social policy will be promoted.

You can't have it both ways. If the majority should be in control simply because it is the majority, if the “general will is always righteous”, then you ought to prepare yourself for oppression. Or, you could admit that you were pretending all along. That your enthusiasm for democracy is only skin-deep, it has a sell-by date which expires the instant the majority goes against you. Therein lies your salvation.

You have been instrumental in creating the leviathan that threatens to consume you, the minorities you claim to care about so deeply, and anyone else who stands in its way.

If you're genuinely concerned about these things, if you can see the writing on the wall, you really ought to get off your collective butts (you do advocate collective action, don't you?) and start educating the electorate (and the future electorate: the kids in the public classroom, over whom you still have some influence) about the proper limits to state power; how the only true guarantee of liberty and freedom for political minorities (the smallest minority being the individual) is a strictly limited government, which respects and protects life, liberty, and property through the rule of law.

You might consider agitating for a speedy return to strict adherence to antiquated constitutional limits and a narrow, dare I say conservative interpretation of state and federal constitutions. You might want to stop fawning over your presidents' usurpation (while to your credit, you did rail against some of their presidents' usurpation). You might want to stop slamming those old dead white guys who warned you about powerful governments and tyranny. It's for your own good, after all.

There is a political movement that stands ready to assist you in taming the beast you once loved and you once thought loved you. There is an oft-maligned and misunderstood political party that can be a strong ally in the struggle to reclaim what has been lost: that movement is libertarianism, and you know the party's name: you, along with other statists, have spent decades marginalizing it. Or, you can join ranks with those in any political party who truly love liberty and want to prune the overgrown monster that threatens to devour us and our children. You can join them now and help them save you, while they try to save themselves and their children.

I won't hold my breath waiting for your change of heart.

I wish everyone the best of luck. We're going to need it.

* I use the term “Liberal” not in the classical sense, but in the modern, Alice-in-Wonderland down-the-rabbit-hole sense. Understanding the difference is left as an exercise to the reader.

** Or at least what they perceive to be their own ends.
Linked by: Doug Ross. Thanks!