By Derek Hunter
Sunday, October 06, 2013
It was not a good week for progressives. Democrats
thought they’d be sitting in the catbird seat during a government shutdown, but
their own arrogance, World War II veterans, children with cancer and their own
words have cost them what they were sure would be a easy victory.
Conceptually, progressives had hoped a government
shutting down would send ripples of panic throughout the country, putting
pressure on Republicans to give in to their demands. It didn’t. The vast
majority of Americans who don’t work for the government, went about their lives
as if nothing had happened.
Having learned from the sequestration battle,
progressives knew the shutdown needed visible effects, not just theoretical
ones. With the closing of public tours of the White House as their guide (and
still in place, therefore unavailable to them now), Democrats closed open-air
national monuments that are routinely open and unstaffed 24/7, 365 days per
year.
The reason they did this is obvious – so media around the
world would broadcast tourists upset their vacation plans were ruined by mean
Republicans. What actually happened reinforced the old joke: If you want to
make God laugh, make a plan.
While tourists were upset, the real story happened at the
World War II Memorial. Members of the Greatest Generation weren’t going to let
some flimsy gates stand in the way of them paying tribute to their fallen
brothers. Nearly 70 years after storming barricades erected by other
governments, they again stormed ones erected by their own.
Progressives tried to reinforce the barricades, but the next
day they were stormed again.
Attempting to deny veterans in their 80s and 90s their
last chance to visit a memorial to themselves, coupled with the threat of
arrest, was too much for progressives and they caved. Veterans flown to
Washington on “Honor Flights” will be allowed to visit, marking yet another
victory for the brave men and women who defeated the forces they battled long
ago.
A Park Service ranger told the Washington Times what we’d
all suspected: “We’ve been told to make life as difficult for people as we can.
It’s disgusting.”
Speaking of disgusting, the second PR disaster for
progressives this week was committed by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, and
it’s even more telling of their nature.
During the gun control debate, progressives repeated the
mantra “If it only saves one child’s life, we have an obligation to act.” This
child was theoretical, and would be “saved” only in the abstract from some
future potential event that could, might, maybe happen. It was a weak argument
then, but the “logic” behind it was turned on them.
Dana Bash of CNN asked Reid, who personally had refused
to allow a vote on a bill to fund the National Institutes of Health that
includes clinical trials for cancer treatment for children, why not just allow
a vote on that to help those children?
Reid’s answer was as heartless as it was unsurprising. He
said, “Why would we want to do that? I have 1,100 people at Nellis Air Force
base that are sitting home. They have a few problems of their own.”
Reid tried to explain away this callous response as a
gaffe; that of course he cares about children with cancer. But it was no gaffe.
He didn’t just say, “Why would we want to do that?” he equated those children
with people who to that point had had two days off of work, saying, “They have
a few problems of their own.” Bed sores and “video game thumb” do not equal
terminal cancer.
And remember, you don’t participate in clinical trials on
a whim. You do so because it’s your last resort. These children are dying.
Conventional treatment hasn’t worked, and this is their last hope. Harry Reid
and his fellow Democrats are denying that last hope out of obstinacy.
The monument strategy didn’t work. Maybe a body count,
especially one with children, will.
If that sounds harsh it’s only because it is. Individuals
never have mattered to progressives; they are about the collective. Individuals
are replaceable, interchangeable and expendable to progressives. Not those in
power, naturally, but the faceless masses and “great unwashed.” History tells
this tale clearly.
Under the “progressive” umbrella are fascism, socialism
and communism, differing only by a few degrees. The early 20th century
infighting between these groups was over which was the standard bearer and
which would lead under the progressive banner – and not over ideological
differences. And no political philosophy had a higher body count in the last
100 years than the progressive movement.
Hundreds of millions were slaughtered or sacrificed for
“the greater good” of the progressive Utopia. What’s a few more kids?
Reid hasn’t backed down on this. He’s still denying those
children their last hope, but he’s exposed now. If children die while he’s
obstructing their care, he and his fellow progressives in politics and the
media will try to spin their deaths as Republicans’ fault. The truth is
different, but he’s fine with that. To put it more bluntly: Harry Reid doesn’t
WANT children to die of cancer, but he can live with it if it advances the
cause.
This was no “gaffe,” this was accidental truth-telling
from an unprepared politician so comfortable in the knowledge that the media
would have his back that he was thrown by a simple question he should have been
prepared for.
On Friday, an Obama administration official was quoted by
the Wall Street Journal saying, “We are winning…It doesn’t really matter to us”
how long the shutdown lasts “because what matters is the end result.”
This has been the progressive way since its inception –
the agenda is what matters, not the individual.
Imagine this: If progressives are willing to obstruct
World War II veterans visiting their memorial, if they’re willing to refuse
funding for children with cancer to avoid something as simple as a one-year
delay in Obamacare or having to live under it themselves, what won’t they do?
Remember, they’re taking over all of health care, slowly but surely. If they
get it, what’s to stop them from blocking funding for any health care for
anyone to get their next dream program in place?
Once you cede power to the government, you aren’t likely
to get it back. A political movement willing to sacrifice children to the
cause, a political philosophy with hundreds of millions of bodies behind it,
will think nothing about adding a few more to the pile.
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