It has become a cliché to say that this year is unlike any previous election in modern history. But elections reflect more than political theater; they draw on the state of the underlying culture, which sets the boundaries of politics. In her column for the Wall Street Journal two weeks ago, former Reagan speechwriter Peggy Noonan perfectly describes the state of the electorate – embattled, harassed, and yes, angry, but angry only because they are finally fighting back:
I close with a thought about an aspect of modern leftism that is part of the context here.
There is something increasingly unappeasable in the Left. This is something conservatives and others have come to fear, that progressives now accept no limits. We can’t just have court-ordered legalized abortion across the land, we have to have it up to the point of birth, and taxpayers have to pay for it. It’s not enough to win same-sex marriage, you’ve got to personally approve of it and if you publicly resist you’ll be ruined.
It’s not enough that we have publicly funded contraceptives, the nuns have to provide them.
This unappeasable spirit always turns to the courts to have its way.
If progressives were wise they would step back, accept their victories, take a breath and turn to the idea of solidifying gains, of heroic patience, of being peaceable.
Don’t make them bake the cake. Don’t make them accept the progressive replacement for Scalia. Leave the nuns alone.
Progressives have no idea how fragile it all is. That’s why they feel free to be unappeasable. They don’t know what they’re grinding down.
They think America has endless give. But America is composed of humans, and they do not have endless give.
Isn’t that what we’re seeing this year in the political realm? That they don’t have endless give? And we’ll be seeing more of it.
As voters in 12 states and one U.S. territory go to the polls today, six presidential candidates – everyone except Hillary Clinton – represent a fundamental break with the status quo on one or both sides of the aisle. Clinton would be Barack Obama's third term in a pink pantsuit.
Bernie Sanders represents the face of leftism unleashed, stomping the nation's foot down on the accelerator of the social and cultural revolution into full-blown socialism. In his world, the laws of economics have been repealed, and self-righteous moralizing combines with statism to demand that all citizens embrace an assault on life and family or pay an exacting price.
Every other candidate is, in some clear and fundamental way, a reaction by the people that the Left has demanded too much, the Culture of Death has advanced too far, and the long-suffering of the American people is not infinitely elastic.
H/T: Family Institute of Connecticut Action