Hate crime on GOP staffer shows liberalism's true self

What those who believe in civility and reason in politics feared apparently is true – the assaults on a staffer of Gov. Bobby Jindal’s and her boyfriend were politically motivated, but it should come as no surprise given the political left’s acceptance of violence by theory and its susceptibility for its use of violence as a substitute for fact and logic to win arguments.

Jindal fundraiser Allee Bautsch and her companion Joe Brown were heckled then assailed by five losers, breaking her leg and his jaw. At the time it was unclear whether the attack was politically motivated as they had been attending a fundraising for the Republican Party but no overtly political statements had been made by the attackers.

But it happened in the middle of crowded weekend night revelry in New Orleans’ French Quarter so their singling out seemed hardly coincidence. (And puzzling was the New Orleans Police Department’s reluctance to classify the case immediately as an assault and the glacial pace it took to the investigation which has allowed valuable opportunities to gather evidence slip away.) Now statements are coming from others at the event and from the victims themselves that lend more credence to the assessment that thugs targeted those individuals in attendance on the basis of their conservative political affiliations -- a hate crime if there ever was one.

Yet this should surprise no one, because liberalism at its core is about division rather than union, preaches class warfare, and decades ago found itself at a point where it had been proven intellectually and factually unable to win political arguments. One of its central tenets absolves the use of government power to remake society in its own warped view that disregards the rights and freedoms of individuals. It specializes in identifying enemies, disparaging them, and, when left unchecked, in violating them using public policy.

This is in great contrast to conservatism, which seeks to have people united in a quest for individual achievement that, when pursued by all, maximizes collectively everybody’s life chances to the best of their contributions to society. Conservatism avoids the use of government power to create those ins and outs, winners and losers, instead focusing on as much non-interference in people lives by government, limited only by rules to maximize fairness when individuals deal with each other and protection of our natural rights. Conservatism emphasizes peaceful cooperation for people to pursue their individual ends (except when dealing with those who declare war on society like criminals); liberalism favors zero-sum clashes that encourages different groups to dehumanize those not part of theirs.

So it is no accident that modern liberalism finds it so easy to resort to physical violence because, given its roots and having lost the intellectual battle, bullying is all it has left besides trying to cloak its real motives and to deceive the public into thinking it is something that it is not (as expertly done in the 2008 elections). Scan the headlines; you’ll find that violent protests of political figures and institutions in recent years always have been the work of the left (you never see the right trashing Starbucks, shouting down and threatening speakers, or using force). You don’t see this from the right because it wins arguments through reason, not depending on emotive appeals that today substitutes for the use of fact and logic by the left that thus tempts it to extend the natural violence voiced in liberalism into practice.

As liberalism has regressed from intellectual foundations to emotive ones, deception of its true nature has become more important to its practice and also is on display in this case. One hallmark technique liberals use is to accuse their opponents of the very things that underlay their ideology to distract from the broader realization that its traits lie within them. Thus we see the latest attempt of trying to equate spirited opposition to liberal policy successes despite negative public opinion of them as causing, with not a shred of evidence to confirm, the very violence they implicitly countenance.

However, these words of distraction lose their power and credibility when the real ugliness of liberalism rears its head as it did in these attacks. Not that the organs of liberalism in the media, academy, or among the political elite will assist with any sense of urgency (consistent with their treatment of the incident, now 10 days old, to this point). There will be few if any calls to step up the investigation, to look into the NOPD’s fumbling of the matter, and to proclaim that the left must disengage its heated rhetoric and internally evaluate itself to correct its faults.

There is one larger implication from this event, and that is that the left is afraid. If you must resort to violence, then you've already lost. In this context, it admits defeat in the battle of ideas and an understanding that only intimidation can stave off a massive shift in political power. Hopefully, the ramifications of this incident will hasten that overdue transfer.