Political partisans tend to fall into the trap of mischaracterizing their opponents. This generally manifests itself as low-level innocuous stuff. Coastal liberals may think southerners are all gun-toting, bible thumpers or midwestern conservatives may think of city dwellers as metrosexual peaceniks. Most established, politically connected organizations would try to avoid getting tripped up by these common stereotypes. But most organizations are not the Heritage Foundation!
Instead of stepping outside and interacting with actual left-leaning people in the world, Heritage decided to setup a circle jerk to discuss Where is Liberalism Going. The results speak more to the paranoid, anachronistic views of DC conservative elites than to actual liberalism. But let’s indulge in their discoveries…
What do conservatives think of liberals today?
Here’s the view from the Heritage Foundation: Liberalism creates self-indulgent, licentious hedonists willing to cede every other kind of freedom to an increasingly authoritarian government.
“Give up your economic freedom, give up your political freedom, and you will be rewarded with license,” said Heritage’s David Azerrad, describing the reigning philosophy of the left. “It’s all sex all the time. It’s not just the sex itself—it’s the permission to indulge.”
All sex all the time. Liberalism’s future is apparently the counterculture of the 1960s as imagined by your grandparents.
“Twenty-five years ago, marriage meant what it had always meant, Madonna was considered risqué, and liberals worried about mass immigration, threats to religious liberty and the vulgarity of pop music. The times, they have a-changed. And they will continue to change as the Left presses on,” Heritage said in announcing the event.
At the Tuesday’s event, a curious portrait of modern-day liberalism emerged. Liberalism meant Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Gawker (for wanting to punish climate change deniers), Senate Democrats (for wanting to undo Citizens United), writer Matt Yglesias (for wanting to eliminate summer vacations), the term “mansplaining” (for being a symptom of P.C. extremism), and Rolling Stone magazine (for giving voice to far-left writers in “the most frivolous consumer product in the history of frivolous consumer products,” per Williamson).
Kudos for Gawker for getting name-dropped—they’re watching you guys and your threatening digital words! But who knew Ring of Fire held such weight? And they’re still feeling threatened by Rolling Stone. The kids these days! They do love to hang out at Berkeley reading their Rolling Stone magazines, smoking the dope, and thinking about sex all of the time. Also, most frivolous consumer product? Have they not heard of 1791 Jeans?
“The left is intellectually dead, and where it’s heading towards is authoritarianism,” said Williamson, citing a Gawker blog post making the case for arresting climate change deniers and a “hate-filled angry crowd, screaming in rage” attending the People’s Climate Rally in New York City, as among the signs of oppression. … Given liberals’ fixation with pleasure, “I fear the next great frontier for the left will be trying to lower the age of consent,” said Azerrad, head of Heritage’s center for principles and politics.
Wow. This is the very serious discussion being held by one of the most influential conservative research organizations in the United States. I read that last line as a hidden slight at homosexuality, which many homophobes wrongly associate with child predators. So when David Azerrad thinks about the left he starts thinking about NAMBLA. Hm.
The discussion starts to morph into the more typical paranoid territory where the Left’s ultimate goal is an oppressive government. “Oppressive” in their minds meaning tolerance (shudder!) and the “tyranny of political correctness”. Being publicly shamed for saying f-g or the n-word is just what Hitler would have wanted, you see. What’s interesting is that the panel identified Libertarianism as also a major threat (“Libertarians have similarly espoused more permissive views towards drugs and sexuality”). What’s unclear from Suzy Khimm’s write-up is where the link lies between the supposed Sex, Drugs and Rock & Roll desires of the Left end and the authoritarian government begins. It’s almost as if it doesn’t exist.
But rest assured it’s not all doom and gloom. Heritage knows you’ll need big daddy 70s hey-day conservatism back in your lives soon enough:
The real cracks in liberalism would begin to show when existential threats begin to threaten America at home and abroad, the panelists said.
“Should the world continue to become a more dangerous place, should the homeland be threatened, or should we witness a return to 1970s levels of violent crime, I think that would put a considerable damper on prospects of liberalism,” said Azerrad. … “Once you had 20 years, under Giuliani and Bloomberg, where the garbage picked up, and the bills were paid, and the streets were safe, New York felt safe to go back to someone like de Blasio.”
If there is one thing that the panelists know will slow the out of control encroachment of government it’s …a massive omnipresent, police state!
