Playback speed:
One man’s reality is another man’s nightmare.
By J. Jeff Toler for Shenandoah Christian Alliance j.toler@sca4christ.org
A search for where progressives—the new liberals—are living will reveal what, for many of my readers, won’t be any surprise. They prefer mostly the blue states and cities in this country. Birds of a feather after all. Here is a list of the top twenty cities where “liberals” live and work: [https://worldpopulationreview.com/us-city-rankings/most-liberal-cities]
- San Francisco, CA
- Washington, DC
- Seattle, WA
- Oakland, CA
- Boston, MA
- Minneapolis, MN
- Detroit, MI
- New York City, NY
- Buffalo, NY
- Baltimore, MD
- Chicago, IL
- Portland, OR
- St. Paul, MN
- Austin, TX
- St. Louis, MO
- Philadelphia, PA
- New Orleans, LA
- Los Angeles, CA
- Pittsburgh PA
- Denver, CO
The list is not complete, but it does a fair job of ranking the most liberal/progressive communities in the US. There are others to be sure. In the coming months, these very cities will figure prominently in the political and social narratives of the general election of 2024. Almost predictably, there will be, like a scripted drama of political intrigue, polemical narratives, and endless dialog among the elites and media spokespeople. Everyone has a favorite horse in the race. But this year promises more of the same, as well as a major denouement that will change the course of American history.
Make no mistake… the entire world is not only watching, it is reacting.
On Sept. 5, 2016, The Claremont Review of Books’ website published “The Flight 93 Election” under the pseudonym Publius Decius Mus. The high-brow polemic went viral a few days later when Rush Limbaugh read it aloud on his radio show. Author Michael Anton – who served on President Trump’s National Security Council and is now a fellow at Hillsdale College and the Claremont Institute – analogized the choice between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump to the one faced by passengers on the last of the four doomed commercial aircraft that had been hijacked by Al Qaeda terrorists on Sept. 11, 2001. If Flight 93 passengers did nothing, they faced certain death. If they charged the cockpit, they might still die, but they gave themselves a fighting chance to seize control of the plane.
The general election of 2024 won’t be anything like 2016. We won’t know if that’s a good thing until 2025.
Publius Decius Mus was the curious pseudonym of Michael Anton, (pictured) an American conservative essayist, speechwriter and former private-equity executive who was a senior national security official in the Trump administration. Good or bad, this election is destined to be every bit as polemic as any, with this significant difference: the “never Trumpers” may find their trumpeting (wordplay intentional) has lost a lot of its resonance. You would think the reason for this would be obvious. The intervening four years between 2020 and now, is the legacy of the current occupant of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, who is an even more risible choice than a Hillary Clinton presidency ever could have been. With her, one might, understandably think the nation would undergo serious, even cataclysmic setbacks. With Mr. Biden, any serious doubt has been erased. And yet…
Liberals simply aren’t up to the task of understanding what’s actually happening. Even with crimes like “smash and grab,” carjacking, school rapes and shootings, and with social experiments like gender reassignment, their reality is different from the reality of conservatives, independents, or even libertarians? That’s because their reality is different, and explains why, as a rule, liberal progressives tend to literally say things like, “Your truth is not my truth.” It also explains why the march toward utopia must necessarily include redefining accepted norms like gender, (what used to be called sex) or replacing old-school racial stereotyping with really just another—yet much more militant form of it, and demanding everyone fall into line.
To be honest, who can really blame them? In the places where they live—their world—that’s the only reality they have ever known. Liberal progressives consume all their news and information from the media that, over time, were transformed from objective reporting into politicized journalism, and so deliver and altered “realities.” And so, not only do they believe they are right, but they also vilify anyone who disagrees with them and their politically correct, woke narratives. They genuinely believe those who refuse to agree, are deserving of their scorn and derision—which they’re more than ready to inveigh.
To gain a better understanding how successful progressives have been at the take-down of traditions and truth, consider the following definition of liberalism using the search engine, Bing: [https://prosancons.com/politics/pros-and-cons-of-liberalism/] “Liberalism is a political and moral ideology that emphasizes the importance of individual freedom, equality, and the protection of human rights.”
Here is a list of twenty Pros and Cons of liberalism—beginning with ten Pros: (liberalism) promotes economic growth, eliminates slavery, provides a stable economy, offers few regulations, preserves human rights, offers equality. Up to this point, it all sounds great. Then the list continues with… government involvement, collective security, global harmony, and fair competition. To be fair, the list does include ten Cons, but read it for yourself. Unless you’re not are paying attention, it will be easy to spot the troubling language and definitions.
This is AI-generated language for describing an altered reality with credit going to DEI/woke multi-national corporations. Lacking the discernment acquired from a lifetime of objective and empirical truth, traditional values—featuring nuclear families, and trusted community schools and churches, this is what passes for far too many as truth.
The reality is stark: This is nothing less than cultural Marxist propaganda—only apparent for people who know the truth. Such people are seldom living in the top twenty most liberal cities in the United States. For such people, the Psalmist writes,
- How well God must like you—you don’t walk in the ruts of those blind-as-bats, you don’t stand with the good-for-nothings, you don’t take your seat among the know-it-alls. Instead you thrill to God’s Word, you chew on Scripture day and night. You’re a tree replanted in Eden, bearing fresh fruit every month, never dropping a leaf, always in blossom. You’re not at all like the wicked, who are mere windblown dust—without defense in court, unfit company for innocent people. God charts the road you take. The road they take leads to nowhere. (Psalm 1:1-6 from The Message)
The question now becomes, “Is there anything anyone can do to fix this disconnect?” Well, voting will certainly help, which is why this election may well be the most consequential ever in the history of the republic.
Photo by Angelo Casto on Unsplash
