Seth.com | Political Blog | Three Deaths Shaped Today's Left

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In May, 2006, I was asked to write some political articles by The Huffington Post. Many of my articles also run in RealClearPolitics.com (RCP). All of them are archived here and on PoliticalMavens.com.

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Apr 4, 2008
Three Deaths Shaped Today's Left
The decades-long doom-and-gloom narrative of the left started with the assassination of JFK in 1963, was reinforced by MLK's assassination in 1968, and was tattooed into their collective consciousnesses with the assassination of RFK only a few months later.

These tragic and emotionally traumatizing events gave the left something akin to a group case of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, confirming to them that there was no reason to dream big if, as happened, their leaders were to be killed even before their promise had been realized.??

Those three deaths, happening over just a four-and-a-half year span, made liberals lose "hope.” As a result and for the sake of self-preservation, they changed from an optimistic “we can overcome” movement to one more comfortable with losing, as Harry Reid’s white flag on the Surge -- before the mission had started --perfectly exemplifies.

From the late ‘60s, till now, the left has seen life as mostly a negative experience, to the point that they hold up as one their great achievements Roe V. Wade, which ends life at its very inception.

The latest proof of this is when Senator Obama said that if his daughters were in a crisis pregnancy, they shouldn’t have to be “punished with a baby.”?

How many times over the years have I heard people I’ve known on the left say, when considering parenthood, “Why bring kids into this rotten world”? I’ve yet to hear someone on the right think of the world this way.

In 1968 the rhetoric – thus the culture – of the left changed to one of morbidity. We were told how a worldwide famine would kill tens of millions, that global cooling would prove our demise, that Sars and Bird Flu and AIDS and second-hand smoke would finish us off.

The newest fetish is global warming, but that is just part of the left’s continuing doomsday view of life. Just today, Ted Turner said the world would be engulfed with cannabilism by 2040.

It’s as if liberals see life as one big Hollywood disaster movie – one great Poseidon Adventure: If the capsizing boat didn’t kill Ernest Borgnine and the other handful of survivors, then the fire in the engine room or the rising water in the hull would or…you get the picture. Life, to liberals, is an ongoing series of disasters, to be survived.

Is it any wonder that Michelle Obama isn’t proud of America? Her “America” is a hope-less place (that is, of course, unless you vote for her husband!).

The dearth of hope explains the appeal to many of Senator Obama, who will most likely be the Democrat presidential nominee. His supporters are happy to dismiss his less than impressive resume, suspect connections to the Chicago “machine,” or his long and close relationship with his Farrakhan-praising, America-degrading pastor – as long as they continue to believe him when he says “yes we can” -- something they haven’t done since 1968.

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Concerning the article by Swirsky, maybe this explains the close connection between the left and Islam. Neither puts any value on human life.

Posted by: Greg at April 5, 2008 11:39 PM

Seth Swirsky article on the 3 deaths. I was a liberal growing up in that time. To me, it was very clear that there was evil in the world and that only strength and pushing back against it would succeed. Who knows if JFK was killed by the Mafia over Cuba or trying to get at RKF to tone down crime investigation. Who
knows if the KGB or even Afarat (the Nobel prize winner) contracted the killing of RFK? King's death was more clear cut. Still, I took from it that America is a good place, has good values and we can work within the system to benefit all.
No welfare, just hard work.

Posted by: Bill at April 5, 2008 11:42 PM

Good points all. I'm not certain I buy into this theory altogether, as much sense as it makes. In a way, this posit attempts to explain liberal treachery thus excuseing it. If we look back, in this country, to the 30's 40's and 50's we saw the rising influence of communism and socialism.

A phenomena that occurred well before the deaths of these pious three.

I rather look at liberals as social defectives. They are angry little people who, " for whatever reason' haven't reached the position in life that they thought they should have. And who do they blame, themselves? No, it's the system, the unfair system.

As if there was an arbiter deciding who wins and loses in life. They look at their circumstances and see the inequities of the world, the unfairness, the poverty. Rather than judging fairness by process they look at the results and see a culture that's imperfect, as if perfection could be attained.

As mental defectives, if they are successful, they are then plagued by guilt. Why have they done so well when all around them there is suffering? They can't comprehend that those in our culture, who suffer the most, live better and longer than most of the world.

They look back on Vietnam, their hay day, and curse their country for our rampant aggression. Yet they remain oblivious to the 2 million people who lost their lives because of our leaving.

They are the liberals, they got us out of that damn war. Now their country, that they hate, is oppressing the world again. We're killing terrorists, without a trial or due process. We're fighting back against an enemy that they identify with, just look at the hordes of ACLU lawyers storming the beaches at club Gitmo.

Liberals look at life and when they fail to see Nirvana they decry their own country for it and blame America first. Yet, there is one mega flaw amongst the minor flaws in their logic. It is this; When, at will, they could choose to live practically anywhere in the world, they remain here. Again, mental defectives.

Posted by: Jim Willis at April 9, 2008 3:01 PM

Seth -- your frequent political postings are starting to annoy me. You don't know a great deal about history -- you accuse the "left," by which you mean liberals, of being pessimistic. You, on the other hand, coming from a materially advantaged background, and having a very comfortable life, can't understand what all the fuss is about in the world. US actions have laid complete waste to what was Iraq. 2.4 million people are displaced. Anywhere from 100K to 900K people have died in the conflict. At an ultimate cost in the Trillions! Doesn't bother Seth! The rate of incarceration in this country is by far, the highest in the world -- are you proud of that? How about the US torturing prisoners? Does that make you kvell? Or the US holding prisoners indefinitely without counsel? The wheels are coming off the US economy because Bush and his administration could not care less about the vast majority of people in this country -- Huge tax breaks for the rich but remember to cut medicaid. Are you proud of a health care system that is the most expensive in the world but consistently ranks about 30th in terms of quality of delivered health care. You can afford to be optimistic -- many people in the world cannot. I do not speak from a deeply unsatisfied position in life -- I have a lovely family a good career -- but I don't kid myself that my background of being a white, middle class Jewish male, has nothing to do with it. Face it, if either one of us had been born in the Horn of Africa, in all likelihood we would both be impoverished or dead or both.

I consider abortion to be a woman's right -- However, many of the politicians you seem to like oppose teaching teens about birth control -- they have encouraged and passed laws that teach teens that "abstinence only" is the only way to fly. Studies have shown that doing this significantly increases unwanted pregnancies.

You've never heard anyone on the right say that "this is a rotten world?" OK -- I've never personally known any leftists to say that. Of course I hold the bar higher for what constitutes a leftist. Basically you set up straw men and knock them down. BFD. The world is in a lot of trouble. Wake up and smell the coffee, dude. Your self-satisfied regurging of Fox News talking points is really lame. How this crud comes from a nice jewish boy from Great Neck, I'll never understand.

Posted by: Lev Bronstein at April 24, 2008 9:43 AM