Temper tantrums remind why left lost all power

In case anyone had forgotten what propelled the reelection of Republican Congressional majorities and the GOP capturing of the White House three months ago, activity at a town hall meeting in Metairie for Republican Sen. Bill Cassidy provided a reminder.

Political opponents of Cassidy converged at the location, strategically arriving early enough to pack the venue. During the event, they filibustered against Cassidy’s issue preferences and others imputed from GOP Pres. Donald Trump, rudely shouting down attempts to explain when those veered from their party line. In all, it replicated a pattern seen at a handful of other such meetings involving politicians in prominent positions of reforming the excesses of the former Pres. Barack Obama era – in Cassidy’s case, by his sponsorship of a reasonable alternative to the misnamed Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (“Obamacare”).

Recognize that little in the way of reason or intellect marked the screed launched by the militants. This reflects the state of liberalism in America today, that has seen over the past half century constant erosion of its validity, as history and analysis increasingly demonstrates its bankruptcy. Only raw emotion remains, where liberalism as an ideology now centers on invalid assertions repeated often and forcefully enough will grant its views legitimacy, despite what we have learned by experiencing liberalism in action – as its rejection at all levels of government culminating in last year’s elections demonstrated.

Further, this protesting reflects top-down organizing, as opposed to the conservative TEA Party movement of eight years ago. Then, as even leftist house organs were forced to admit, immediate discontent over the sharp leftward turn policy took under Obama produced a spontaneous backlash that over time promoted a highly decentralized network of policy entrepreneurs coming to the front to coordinate. By contrast, Obama’s community organizing arm has played a prominent role in encouraging the showmanship at events like town hall meetings, Democrat operatives have bragged about their roles in staging these confrontations, and a number of other leftist groups have built cadres that they can activate on a moment’s notice to stage protests these days.

It might be over the top to argue that a significant number of agitators who show up at a meeting like Cassidy’s are “professional” protesters – likely most are constituents. But it’s certain that they received instructions for mobilization from centralized sources – in Cassidy’s case, shown by the fact that hardly any protesters appeared at his other town hall meetings at different locations within hours of the Metairie event. It’s too coincidental to think all the aggrieved in south Louisiana independently chose to converge at one place; this screams tactics of jamming one place to block out Cassidy supporters and increase intimidation of him.

But Cassidy has an unflappable nature and throughout refused to take their bait, rejecting their uninformed allegations and premises. The physician also made an exact diagnosis of the situation in his remarks afterwards: “I assume they’re Americans that care about our country that feel differently about Trump than most folks in Louisiana do, but they’re coming out with their constitutionally protected right to assemble and speak” (emphasis added).

Just so. They represent the true One Percent, who if they just emote long enough and passionately enough can avoid realizing all of that cannot make up for the factual and logical deficiencies in their worldviews. In no way do they represent a majority of Louisianans, nor even a majority in America (such as on Trump’s immigrant orders and Obamacare). They may think they can masquerade as such, through zealously making their distinctly minority view appear more prevalent than it is, but election results don’t lie.

However, in one respect Cassidy’s summation erred. Unfortunately, the Metairie meeting also cloned the most disturbing aspect of these efforts – a strategy that deploys emotive rhetoric designed to deflect and drown out opposing views. This comes from acknowledgment by those spewing it that they cannot win the argument, so they must prevent any countering to their polemics. In that sense, they do not respect the Constitution because they seek to deny others from exercising the same rights that they abuse.

It’s precisely this arrogant, ignorant lecturing, led for so long by an insufferable but charismatic Obama whose cult of personality alone staved off complete rejection by the nation’s majority years ago, that has decimated Democrats. Over the past eight years that attitude cost the left all levers of power, reducing its standard-bearing party nationally to a rump organization with governing power isolated in urban enclaves and a few states. In Louisiana, it has merely an accidental governor, controls no other state-level institutions, and only some of its largest cities.

Politics by temper tantrum cannot win elections, but undoubtedly the left will continue this because that’s all it knows, repelling those interested in making policy for the common good whose votes it needs for its agenda to become relevant again. Meanwhile, enjoy watching the One Percenters engage in therapy, raging against a world they simply cannot understand.