Right News and Views

A few of those who just don’t get it

I’ve always respected Thomas Sowell and faithfully read his columns. And I can’t wait to get my hands on a copy of “Economic Facts and Fallacies.” As Heather Wilhelm observes the book “dismantles many of the pervasive fallacies running rampant in politics today, broken into categories of urban life, gender, academia, income, race, and the problems of the third world.”

But liberals won’t let the facts get in the way of their mission to make the world how they think it should to be rather than how reality dictates it is. In failed idea after failed idea many of them stick to the belief that more government is the answer be it redistribution of wealth to other forms of government intrusion like Social Security, rent controls, dictating what restaurants may or may not serve, too-heavily regulating businesses, and so on.

Wilhelm points out that “for many, it seems, beliefs in economic fallacies take on a quasi-religious significance, fueled by a fervent belief in the way things ought to be or in a worldview soaked in victimization. Sowell suggests that certain “evidence is too dangerous–politically, financially, and psychologically–for some people to allow it to become a threat to their interests or to their own sense of themselves.”

I would call this weak-mindedness. And if you are liberal that pretty much sums up your problem. Take San Francisco, for example. The military protects their freedom to hate the military. The military protects their right denounce others for holding traditional moral values. Homosexuality would be one of the many things Islamic terrorists would seek to suppress or wipe out if they took over- a fact that seems to escape the bashers of those who protect San Francisco and the rest of the US from invasion.

How do we get the truth out and “sell” it so that people will act upon their newfound knowledge? I’ve seen a few liberals become conservative (Dennis Miller and Dick Morris come to mind) though I don’t know of any conservatives that have become liberal. I suppose as one gets older a form of dementia can set in and one may become liberal but for the most part those that “get it” maintain their understanding. But back to the point- I’ve seen some liberals become conservative. So I know it is possible. The only thing I know to do is keep pounding them with the facts or just run over them in the quest to strengthen and improve our country. Maybe one day they’ll catch up.