The Left: Not Peripherally but Pervasively Irrational!

No rational “conservative” [i.e., traditional humanist] would ever consider supporting the various forms of “right-wing” fanaticism which the Left loves to associate with “conservatism.” As difficult as it is for “progressives” to understand, for example, it is possible to denounce various aspects of Islam without endorsing the slaughter of any of its adherents. It is possible to make valuations of a critical nature without being consumed by hate. Indeed to those of us who continue to see Man as a moral/intellectual being, such valuations are integral to human progress. My point is that hatred is not an inherent aspect of “conservatism” but a gross perversion of it, whereas irrationality and indeed stupidity pervade the Mainstream Left.

Take the issue of de-funding the police. Was this the idea of a few radical loonies or did it in fact gain credence in a significant number of Democratically controlled American cities? The obviously biased Bloomberg.com suggests scornfully that only 16 of America’s 50 most populous cities had actually chosen to reduce the budgets of their police forces, N.Y. and L.A. among them. Its absurd premise, in spite of the actions of those two major cities, would seem to be that the de-fund movement was a grossly exaggerated right-wing myth. The very fact that it sought to prove as much indicates it thought the initiative to be absurd. Chicago, one notes, was not included among the “de-funders” because Lori Lightfoot had spoken out against the movement. But upon further investigation one discovers she had reduced the budget of the Chicago police by 59 million dollars, simply refusing to fill the 614 vacancies which had ensued, at least in part, as a result of the current political situation.

2020 saw an increase of 130% in shooting incidents in N.Y.C. From May to July in 2020 [ 3 months!!! ] there were 1,130 shootings in Chicago resulting in 212 deaths. Seattle, which chose to decrease its 2021 police budget by 76 million, also saw a huge spike in criminal activity. We could go on citing such statistics, but the undeniable truth is that while their protocols may need to be seriously amended, the police as a deterrent to human evil are a fundamental pragmatic necessity. Only a fool would think otherwise. But unfortunately such fools [i.e., “progressives”] do exist.

Chirlane McCray, the wife of N.Y.C. mayor Bill de Blasio, encouraged him last June to shift funds from the 6 billion dollar budget of the N.Y.C. police force to various youth initiatives and social services. While they each made it clear that the elimination of the city’s cops was a silly idea that would have catastrophic repercussions, it was nevertheless decided to decrease their 2021 budget by 1 billion dollars. I know Covid has had something to do with the rise in crime in all jurisdictions, but in N.Y.C. the apparent inability of the under-funded police to deal with that reality led Chirlane, in early March, to implore the citizens of her city to intervene when they saw violent crimes in progress. On Feb. 26, Asian American Yong Zheng attempted to intervene in a Brooklyn robbery and was stabbed to death. While such tragedies might no doubt occur in cities with fully funded police forces, their likelihood clearly increases when there simply aren’t enough cops to meet the needs of the public. The billion dollar reduction in N.Y.C.’s police budget may very well have cost Yong Zheng his life and indeed that of many others.

In Minneapolis, following George Floyd’s death, approximately 200 officers chose to resign or go on temporary leave in the face of the mounting violence in that city. Homicides increased by 60% throughout the balance of 2020 and complaints from citizens unable to get police assistance when in dire need rose dramatically. In response to those realities, the Minneapolis City Council, in spite of the “de-fund” movement, voted unanimously on Feb. 12, 2021, to increase the police budget by 6.4 million dollars.

The notion that a Civilized Society can remain so without the imposition of force to uphold the Rule of Law is naive beyond belief, indeed suggests a profound ignorance of human nature. But ought one to have expected anything more from a political ideology which ludicrously, simplistically, consigns guilt to all those Individuals and Civilizations which have succeeded while exonerating all others as their innocent victims? Is not the brazen superficiality of such an “ethos” self-evident in the Left’s response to Derek Chauvin and George Floyd, each seemingly guilty of serious moral failings yet the one savagely denounced by the mainstream media as a White racist cop and the other, a career criminal ranting incoherently while high on fentanyl and methamphetamine, absurdly elevated to the status of American Hero?

Violations of Reason and brazen denials of Reality pervade the political Left. One doesn’t have to look hard to find examples of such. If you are an American living along the border with Mexico you surely know exactly what I mean. Joe and Kamala’s idiotic invitation to the rest of the world to violate the integrity of their country’s borders will be the subject of my next blog.