Liberal Politicians and Activists are like children

Liberal politicians and activists are like children. Not just any children. They are like kids between 10 and 19 years old – the age where kids are sure, as a moral certainty, that they know everything and that parents are the stupidest hominids populating the planet. But that does not adequately describe Liberals. A more accurate statement is that Liberals are like “I am smarter than everyone else” children with Multiple Personality Disorder.

What is Multiple Personality Disorder? According to the American Psychiatric Association (and it should know), the diagnostic criteria for Multiple Personality Disorder are:

• The presence of two or more distinct identities or personality states, each with its own relatively enduring pattern of perceiving, relating to, and thinking about the environment and self.
  
• At least two of these identities or personality states recurrently take control of the person's behavior.
  
• Inability to recall important personal information that is too extensive to be explained by ordinary forgetfulness.
  
• The disturbance is not due to the direct physiological effects of a substance (e.g., blackouts or chaotic behavior during Alcohol Intoxication) or a general medical condition (e.g., complex partial seizures).

I would make one change in this definition. Change the phrase “the environment” to “reality.” Okay, let’s try it again.

• The presence of two or more distinct identities or personality states, each with its own relatively enduring pattern of perceiving, relating to, and thinking about reality and self.
  
• At least two of these identities or personality states recurrently take control of the person's behavior.
  
• Inability to recall important personal information that is too extensive to be explained by ordinary forgetfulness.
  
• The disturbance is not due to the direct physiological effects of a substance (e.g., blackouts or chaotic behavior during Alcohol Intoxication) or a general medical condition (e.g., complex partial seizures).
  

I do not have a degree in higher mathematics so I can’t say with any degree of certainty how many personalities comprise this milieu we call Liberal. However, I have identified a few of the more dominant personalities.

For the sake of convenience, I think we can all agree that politicians and activists cycle personalities on a routine but irregular basis, and have no short or long-term memory. They certainly do not learn from past mistakes. They are just born that way. So, I will focus on the first element of the diagnosis.

1. “Nellie.” This personality is modeled after Nellie Oleson of Little House on the Prairie fame. She was the oldest child of the richest family in town. In today’s PC parlance, she was a child of privilege. She wore the latest fashions available in Appleton, the newest gussets and bonnets, and had access to the latest in fine hair care products to maintain those bouncy curls. Some would call her an evil princess. She was a spoiled child who threw tantrums when she did not get her way, tried to order the “little people” around because she was always right and the little people were just stupid, never took responsibility when her ideas made things worse, and enjoyed with evil glee any opportunity to punish those who disagreed with her.

2. “Sparkle Moonbeam Sunshine Love.” Sparkle M.S. Love believes that “all you need is love” but does not necessarily agree with the statement “all we are saying is give soap a chance.” In her world the important thing is that you feel good about yourself. Competition is bad because the loser’s (oops – that’s a curse word) self esteem might be damaged. When somebody attacks us it’s because of something we did. We should apologize and try to get in touch the pain that the attacker feels, for only by walking a mile in their shoes can we become one with our brothers and sisters.

Sparkle lives in a magical and thoroughly groovy world where you create your present and future by visualization. If you believe in change and hope, you know – really believe – then the world will be a beautiful place where butterflies wake you in the morning by tickling your eyelashes with their wings and the lollipop trees are forever in bloom. The cool thing is that you don’t have to do anything to make it happen except to feel and believe. Morality and social norms are just shackles that keep you from being “you.”

From whence cometh the Sparkles of the world? I refer you to a prescient speech by Spiro Agnew delivered in either1969 or 1970:

Sometimes it appears that we're reaching a period when our senses and our minds will no longer respond to moderate stimulation. We seem to be reaching an age of the gross, persuasion through speeches and books is too often discarded for disruptive demonstrations aimed at bludgeoning the unconvinced into action. The young -- and by this I'd don't mean any stretch of the imagination all the young, but I'm talking about those who claim to speak for the young--at the zenith of physical power and sensitivity, overwhelm themselves with drugs and artificial stimulants.

Subtlety is lost, and fine distinctions based on acute reasoning are carelessly ignored in a headlong jump to a predetermined conclusion. Life is visceral rather than intellectual. And the most visceral practitioners of life are those who characterize themselves as intellectuals. Truth is to them revealed rather than logically proved. And the principal infatuations of today revolve around the social sciences, those subjects which can accommodate any opinion, and about which the most reckless conjecture cannot be discredited. Education is being redefined at the demand of the uneducated to suit the ideas of the uneducated. The student now goes to college to proclaim, rather than to learn. The lessons of the past are ignored and obliterated, and a contemporary antagonism known as "The Generation Gap." A spirit of national masochism prevails, encouraged by an effete core of impudent snobs who characterize themselves as intellectuals.

In subsequent speeches Agnew spoke of “nattering nabobs of negativism” and “pusillanimous pussyfooters.” The leaders of the anti- war movement were described as “hard-core dissidents and professional anarchists;” others were called “ideological eunuchs” and “vultures” who “prey upon the good intensions of gullible men.” You don’t find that level of truth in speeches delivered by today’s politicians.

3. And finally, the personality I call “Bubba Elliot.” Bubba is a more mature Nellie. The same personality traits remain, tempered by a degree of political pragmatism that makes him dangerous. He knows how to read people, and has the ability to manipulate them in a way that compromises their core values while furthering his agenda. And what is his agenda? To be remembered as the best and brightest. But, there is one thing standing in his way – Bubba Elliot. You see, Bubba is so smart that he knows all the rules, so grandiose that he assumes he can define and enforce the rules as applied to others, but so narcissistic that he believes the rules do not apply to him.

Are there other personalities that comprise the enigma known as the Liberal Politician or Activist? Sure. But my fingers are getting tired.