Progressive Policies Fail the Real World Test
– Howard Sierer –
Progressive policy recommendations have a utopian allure, but when put into practice over the last decade, four principal concepts have failed miserably. The baleful influence of progressivism has peaked and has begun to fade into the dustbin of history.
For the last ten years, progressive ideas drove the thinking and hence the policies of the Democratic Party. Their influence peaked with the Black Lives Matter and Green New Deal movements and were implemented with legislation and regulations in the Biden administration’s early years. As a result, four progressive themes were turned into law and each has created major societal problems and corresponding harsh public backlash.
Take a look at each of those failures: encouraging illegal immigration, allowing rampant lawbreaking, seeing all issues through race and gender glasses, and eliminating fossil fuels.
Encouraging illegal immigration. When Pres. Biden came into office, he immediately issued a series of executive orders dramatically loosening the rules for handling illegal immigrants. The public recoiled at the dramatic surge and subsequent placement of these illegal immigrants into cities all over the country. As a result, border security became a major political issue that turned public sentiment against Biden and the Democratic Party for letting the situation get out of control.
Contrary to the claims of progressive advocates, American public opinion sees border security as a huge issue that cannot be mollified by progressive claims to “humanize” the immigration system. Public opinion polling over the years has consistently shown overwhelming majorities in favor of more spending and emphasis on border security.
A surprising 62% of voters in a June CBS News survey supported “starting a new national program to deport all undocumented immigrants currently living in the US illegally.” That majority included traditional Democratic supporters: 47% of blacks, 58% of white college graduates, and even 53% of Hispanics.
Along with many others, I’ve been a consistent advocate for legal immigration while opposing progressives’ policy that effectively eliminated our southern border.
Allowing Rampant Lawbreaking. With Black Lives Matter on the ascendancy, progressives advocated dramatic policing reforms. With their view that our society is “systemically racist,” they saw police as symbols of white oppression of minorities and their catchphrase “defund the police” spread quickly in the liberal media.
Law enforcement is primarily a local responsibility. In progressive strongholds like San Francisco, Philadelphia and other large cities, progressives funded by billionaire George Soros elected district attorneys who saw those committing street crimes like shoplifting, open air drug sales and assault as victims of racism and refused to prosecute them. Police – reduced in number by progressive city council budget cutting – soon got the message and stopped making arrests.
The most enthusiastic supporters of this approach to policing tend to be white college-educated liberals, the base of the progressive movement, most of whom don’t live in the inner city. Nonwhite and working-class voters see street crime quite differently. A Pew poll found that black and Hispanic Democrats—who are largely urban and working class—are significantly more likely than white Democrats to favor more police presence in their neighborhoods.
With street crime reaching intolerable levels, progressive district attorneys and city councils are being ousted by voters. The message for progressives: policing works. Plenty of evidence shows that police deter crime and most minority residents agree.
Seeing all issues through race and gender glasses. Implementing this theory, progressives judge an action not by whether it’s effective and an argument not by whether it’s true, but rather by whether the people benefitted are in an oppressed/powerless/marginalized group or not. If they are, the actions or arguments should be supported; if not, they should be opposed.
Ibram X. Kendi became the de facto spokesman for progressives on this topic. His astonishing pronouncements were treated as revealed truth by tens of millions of good Democrats, afraid to point out that the emperor had no clothes. For example, Kendi wrote:
“There is no such thing as a nonracist or race-neutral policy. Every policy in every institution in every community in every nation is producing or sustaining either racial inequity or equity between racial groups…The only remedy to racist discrimination is antiracist discrimination….The only remedy to past discrimination is present discrimination. The only remedy to present discrimination is future discrimination.”
Justifying reverse discrimination is the essence of Kendi’s Critical Race Theory but flies in the face of what polls show 92% of Americans believe: “Our goal as a society should be to treat all people the same without regard to the color of their skin.” A sure sign that progressives’ CRT has failed: it has become intolerable even to prominent liberals.
Eliminating fossil fuels. Progressives espouse the view that climate change is an existential crisis that is already upon us as evidenced by extreme weather events. It threatens the existence of the planet if immediate, drastic action is not taken. Progressives proposed the “Green New Deal,” a program for government takeover of the economy.
This became gospel to progressives who see themselves as noble warriors fighting against an impending apocalypse. Their faith is unshaken by the failure of many of their climate predictions and even when confronted with the fact that the draconian measures they propose will make virtually no change in global temperatures.
Most Americans, especially working-class citizens, have not signed up for – or have even shown much interest in – the rapid green transition envisioned in the Green New Deal. In a recent New York Times/Siena poll, a stunning two-thirds of likely voters said they supported a policy of “increasing domestic production of fossil fuels such as oil and gas.” Similarly, a new NBC poll reported that by a very wide 67% to 15% margin, voters said they would be more likely, rather than less likely, to support a candidate who wanted to expand fossil fuel production.
I’ve been highlighting progressives’ “net zero emissions” folly for years. Net zero is finally crashing into reality. Notice that climate was not mentioned at the Democratic convention or on this fall’s campaign trail. Democrats have finally got the message.
In fact, the entire façade erected by progressives has collapsed as their policy recommendations have failed in every real world implementation. Expect to hear much less of their foolishness from Democrats who want to be elected in the real world.
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