Federalization of Progressive Liberalism is Tearing This Country Apart
When you get right down to it, progressive liberalism is the most divisive ideology to infect American politics in more than one hundred years. But the issue is not progressive liberalism per se, but rather the cramming of it down the throats of US citizens who want no part of it.
If you support progressive liberalism, that is your right and there are plenty of states that embrace it. You should move to one of those states where you can be happy as a clam until the state begins to collapse economically and socially as California is presently. But still, if that is what you want, go for it. If you figure out how to make it work, you won’t have to cram it down the throats of other states, they will naturally gravitate there.
If you reject progressive liberalism, that should also be your right and there are plenty of states that reject progressive liberalism. You should move to one of those economically booming states like Texas. But you shouldn’t try to force California to be like Texas. One of the reasons America is a great country is because of its diversity including its economic and political diversity. Our country offers choices… one size shoe does not fit everyone… and we have fifty different sizes of shoe in this country.
California where I presently live is at risk of running out of money, even though we are by far the highest taxing state in the country (when all taxes are considered) and by a considerable amount. Yet with all that tax revenue we are losing ground in our war against poverty with around 18% of our population living below the cost of living adjusted poverty line more than 50% above the national average. Something about our public policy is terribly wrong and our politicians either won’t or can’t admit it. We were once the envy of the country… now people are fleeing our state.
And therein lies the rub. Progressive liberalism is losing in the “marketplace” and progressive liberals rather than revise their ideology are attempting to eliminate their competition. One way to think of states and cities are as landlords. Your taxes are your “rent”. If you are happy with what you get for your taxes, you renew your lease, but if you are unhappy you start to look elsewhere for a better deal.
Progressive liberal states are losing this competition. As nearly all of them are at the top of the list of places losing “tenants” even though they represent some of the choicest places to live when it comes to underlying real estate. Very few people leave California because they can’t stand our weather or our ocean front, or our mountains. In effect, the political policies foisted on its citizens by progressive liberals are so burdensome, that the “tenants” are not renewing their lease and are deciding to rent elsewhere.
In a “free market” the normal response would be to change “your offering”. Lower taxes to attract businesses and residents, upgrade your services (like reducing crime or increasing affordable housing) to provide more value for the taxes people pay, etc. You know things are working when the foot traffic shows people moving to your state not away. But progressive liberals don’t think in terms of “free market”, they think in terms of imposing their view of nirvana regardless of what their tenants think. Especially, those tenants that are paying the highest “rent”.
So the other option is to destroy your competition through Federalization. Federalization takes two forms. First national mandates that attempt to force your ideology on all states even those that reject it. This effectively eliminates choice based on services and forces people to live under rules they would normally reject if they had a choice. Secondly, increase taxes everywhere so the “rent” is equalized and again you eliminate choice based on “cost”. At the end of the day, progressive liberals cannot afford for Americans to be given a choice and so they need Federalization to eliminate choice.
As the last election shows somewhere around half of America rejects progressive ideology. Forcing them to accept progressive ideology and eliminating the competition between states that makes America better is tearing this country apart.
Biden says he wants to unify the country and promote bipartisanship. The answer is simple… let you by you… and me be me. If your state wants progressive liberal government go for it. But if your state rejects progressive liberal ideology than let it. Don’t use the Federal government to “fund” ideologies that don’t work economically.
But this does not work for progressive liberals, there ideology has to keep finding new sources of money to fund their ideology and leaving any stone unturned will cause people to see their ideology is literally “bankrupt” or heading that way. That in a nutshell is why our country is so divided and why reconciliation is unlikely. Only if progressive liberals can figure out how to make their ideology sustainable does it have any chance of not tearing this country apart.
The funny thing is that an ideology that so values “sustainability” is itself unsustainable… ironic… isn’t it?
