Two fundamental techniques undergird progressives success at narrative spinning. The first is skillful framing of the debate through investing heavily in public opinion making machinery. This disarms critics while giving lawmakers cover to vote for bills theyve neither read nor understood. Thus framed, policies are judged only by their stated intentions, never their actual results. This allows politicians to promote new pieces of legislation named for their lofty objectives, even if the thousands of pages of vague and contradictory content deliver just the opposite.
The second is dodging all responsibility for failure. This is accomplished by blaming insufficient resources, the prior administration, the greedy 1 percent, sabotage by Republicans, or even the peoples obdurate failure to appreciate the progressive benefits conferred upon them. When the going gets tough, reality can be dismissed with a slogan. Forward!
Progressivism has been on the rise for the past century since a pedantic Princeton professor seized the White House with a mere 42 percent of the vote. From He kept us out of War, to fighting a War to end all Wars, Woodrow Wilson became the prototype activist president. He relegated the concept of strictly limited and enumerated powers to the dustbin of history while helping to turn the Constitution into a living document. The federal government was set on a new course with a social, economic, and cultural footprint that has been expanding ever since.
Progressivism reached its pinnacle in the presidency of Barack Obama. Running on Hope and Change and claiming the mortgage meltdown was Bushs fault, he went on to achieve passage of the Affordable Care Act with Wilsonian promises that will forever be linked to his name. But unlike Wilsons War to end all Wars, which was not proven a lie until after its author had passed from this world, Obamacare inconveniently began unraveling before it was even launched.
And so, 2013 may prove to be the year the progressive spell was finally broken. The crash of Obamas signature health care legislation, the Detroit bankruptcy, a hapless foreign policy as ill-defined as the Syrian red line, the meteoric growth of Food Stamp Nation, millions of long-term unemployed leaving the workforce, college graduates begging for jobs while struggling under $1 trillion in loans, the collapse of the global warming juggernaut, the debasement of the dollar with nothing to show for it but a stock market bubblethere are just too many progressive fingerprints on an unbroken string of failures for a good-intentions hall pass to carry much weight this time.
2013: The Year The Progressive Narrative Collided With Reality - Forbes
The second is dodging all responsibility for failure. This is accomplished by blaming insufficient resources, the prior administration, the greedy 1 percent, sabotage by Republicans, or even the peoples obdurate failure to appreciate the progressive benefits conferred upon them. When the going gets tough, reality can be dismissed with a slogan. Forward!
Progressivism has been on the rise for the past century since a pedantic Princeton professor seized the White House with a mere 42 percent of the vote. From He kept us out of War, to fighting a War to end all Wars, Woodrow Wilson became the prototype activist president. He relegated the concept of strictly limited and enumerated powers to the dustbin of history while helping to turn the Constitution into a living document. The federal government was set on a new course with a social, economic, and cultural footprint that has been expanding ever since.
Progressivism reached its pinnacle in the presidency of Barack Obama. Running on Hope and Change and claiming the mortgage meltdown was Bushs fault, he went on to achieve passage of the Affordable Care Act with Wilsonian promises that will forever be linked to his name. But unlike Wilsons War to end all Wars, which was not proven a lie until after its author had passed from this world, Obamacare inconveniently began unraveling before it was even launched.
And so, 2013 may prove to be the year the progressive spell was finally broken. The crash of Obamas signature health care legislation, the Detroit bankruptcy, a hapless foreign policy as ill-defined as the Syrian red line, the meteoric growth of Food Stamp Nation, millions of long-term unemployed leaving the workforce, college graduates begging for jobs while struggling under $1 trillion in loans, the collapse of the global warming juggernaut, the debasement of the dollar with nothing to show for it but a stock market bubblethere are just too many progressive fingerprints on an unbroken string of failures for a good-intentions hall pass to carry much weight this time.
2013: The Year The Progressive Narrative Collided With Reality - Forbes
