Progressives and the Overton Window

The Overton Window was originally postulated by the former Vice-President of the Mackinac Center for Public Policy, Joseph Overton (1960-2003). Most commonly used to demonstrate political spectra, it can be geared to accommodate ANY desired methodology. Basically, it is used to depict what any given society deems acceptable at any given time. Over time, the position of the window over that defined spectrum shifts based on popular plurality.

Progressives have long understood that on any given issue, they are a clear minority. However, by supporting multiple minority far-left positions, they have shifted the window of public acceptability, as well as government intervention, into areas that would make our Founding Fathers and our grandparents roll over in their graves.

A majority of the population, both Liberal and Conservative alike, support the legal definition of marriage as the lifelong union of a man and a woman. Progressives, however want to go much further, into the realms of polygamy, bestiality and worse. By merely suggesting this major shift to the left of the Overton Window as it applies to human relationships, as a society we have accepted a lesser leftward shift into forced acceptance of homosexuality.

Discrimination laws used to protect those in a minority class that had no choice in being members of that minority class. Race, gender, ethnicity, physical handicaps and even to a degree, religion, are classes that deserve government protection in society and the workplace. But now we have entered the realm of government intervention into personal choice by establishing perversion by choice as a protected minority class.

Emboldened by this success of the minority over the majority, the Progressive agenda has now managed to score recent additional victories. Government takeovers of the banking, automotive and insurance industries against the wishes of the majority of Americans have succeeded, and now our government is taking over the health care industry. The energy industry is next, especially with the furor that has been created over the Deepwater Horizon oil-rig tragedy in the Gulf of Mexico.

Fundamental transformation of the greatest society in history..."Yes, We Can!" But should we?

Why The Political Vitriol Exists

The question was posed to me earlier, "Why do Democrats so outwardly despise those who disagree with them?" I don't honestly believe that it is a political leaning from one side of the aisle in Congress or the other, but more from an ideological standpoint than anything else.

As a Conservative, I believe that most who share my mindset tend to see things in black and white, right and wrong, polar opposites so to speak. On an intellectual level, we can justify our beliefs based not only upon experience, but an a + b = c type common sense! Logical arguments tend to frame our debating points, and it frustrates us to no end that liberals just can't seem to grasp any simple concept.

Liberals, on the other hand, approach issues from a deeply emotional perspective, one that is rooted in a standpoint of "how does this issue make me feel about myself?". Liberals see the worst in everyone who doesn't feel the same way about a particular issue that they do, even if its another liberal they disagree with!

Conservatives have the benefit of history on their side, and the Liberals are slowly overcoming that by re-writing history to conform to their own bigger-government agenda. Conservatives have the benefit of logic on their side, and unable to put forth an intelligent counterpoint, Liberals will resort to name-calling or branding. Conservatives believe in setting the bar of personal achievement high, that overcoming failure to achieve success is a necessary builder of character. Liberals believe in lowering the bar to a level that eliminates any failure whatsoever.

Pick any topic du jour...abortion, gun rights, illegal immigration, or homosexuality, and you can bet that argument is framed on the Conservative side with careful thought and concern for the majority, whereas the Liberal side are based on self-centered emotion. Anyone who believes that abortion is wrong is labeled a misogynist, or worse. Believe that every American has a right to own a gun and the liberals cry about bloodshed staining the streets of our cities and towns. If you support illegal immigration enforcement and securing the borders, then you are a racist! If you don't believe that one who practices sodomy for pleasure should go camping with your 10-year-old son in the Boy Scouts, then you are a homophobe.

The primary problem with the emotion-based arguments is that emotions are fleeting and ill-defined, whereas history is there for all to see and learn from. But don't waste a lot of time trying to convince a liberal of that...they will simply rewrite history and redefine the terms of the argument.

Word of the day...

Anosognosic: It is a hypothesis that suggests if the individual pictured is too stupid to realize that the hat he is wearing has a visor designed to shade his eyes and all he has to do is turn it around, then he is too stupid to REALIZE that he is too stupid!

This describes liberals perfectly! They are too clueless to realize they are clueless, much less the depth of their cluelessness! They are protected from their incompetence by the incompetence of those they surround themselves with.

The exact opposite of this is METACOGNITION (thanks to Tony Venuti for introducing me to the word). Metacognition deals with the concept of knowing that you know. For example, I know that 2+2 = 4, and I also KNOW that I know that. I also don't know the square root of 271,441 at the moment, but I know that I can get the answer as well as how to get it (521, by the way).

The problem with liberals is PSEUDOCOGNITION, which is knowing that they feel and feeling that they know. This is the root of their arrogance, which they display daily via the C-SPAN Networks!

They feel that they know how to run a business better than a businessman or run a military at war better than a general. They feel that they know YOUR pain, YOUR hardship and and how to run YOUR life. Let me ask Barney Frank or Chris Dodd when the last time was that they had to skip a mortgage payment in order to keep the electricity on. Let me ask Nancy Pelosi when was the last time she had to cut back on groceries in order to put gas in the car.

These people are NOT the real danger facing America...they are merely the tools being used by the Progressives in order to facilitate the radical transformation of America. Unless we Conservatives come out of the woodwork and drop our apathy, it seems that Ronald Reagan's words of caution to us will come true: "When we forget that we are one nation UNDER GOD, then we will truly be one nation GONE UNDER".

Playing The Blame Game

Here it is folks, the cause of childhood obesity!!! Much like blaming pencils for misspellings or guns for killing people, here is the latest attempt to shift the focus away from the root cause of the problem...lack of personal responsibility.

I remember as a kid tossing a box of Lucky Charms into Mom's shopping cart and slipping the Cheerios back onto the shelf. Not only did the Lucky Charms taste better, but there was a toy inside those boxes as well! Crackerjacks was a favorite snack of mine as well, and GUESS WHAT...there is a prize in each box of them as well. Like all kids today and throughout history, I preferred the stuff that tasted good over the stuff that was good for me. It had nothing to do with a damn toy!

I was always an active kid...playing kickball, hide-n-seek, baseball, and even a game made up by the neighborhood kids called "Scalp-Em", a crude combination of Red-Robin and Smear The Queer (oops, we can't use that word anymore, either, but that is a topic for another blog post).

THIS is the cause of childhood obesity...lack of pure physical activity! We put TVs, Playstations and Nintendo DSs into the hands of our children to serve primarily as an electronic babysitter. They sit around for hours trying to unlock the secret code that will get them additional powers and advance to the next level. When stuck, they TXT a BFF on their cell phone, or post an update to their MySpace page to get help.

I don't see a whole bunch fat kids zipping around skateboards or kicking out some eye-opening tricks on their bicycles. No, the fat kids I see around here all have one thing in common...their chubby little faces are generally poorly illuminated by a television or handheld video game screen.

Standing By Your Word

Way to go, New Jersey Governor Christie!!! Unlike Bush #41, when you said "NO NEW TAXES", you meant it! I am across the river in Pennsylvania, but I admire the dedication and fortitude that you are demonstrating to your electorate as well as the liberal lawmakers that pollute your State House and Senate. I hope that your fervor in standing by your campaign promises spreads out to the rest of those running for office across this great land.

For those of you not in the Garden State, Governor Christie recently vetoed a budget bill that would place a 2.5% income tax "surcharge" on individuals making over $1,000,000 annually. The estimated half-billion dollars would have been used to close fiscal shortages on numerous entitlement programs within the state. It doesn't matter what it's called, or how the liberals try to sugarcoat it...it is SOCIALIST REDISTRIBUTION OF WEALTH.

Governor Christie has already been pilloried and vilified in the NJ media for forcing the cities and townships of NJ to make the tough choices and cut spending. The Democrat lawmakers are already proclaiming him as "protecting the millionaires" by vetoing this bill.

No, he is protecting EVERYONE who earns...once you Democrats learn that tax increases on the wealthy inevitably spread to the rest of us, maybe you will be able to understand this simple concept. History shows that I am likely to be wrong.

Perception is Reality? Apparently, so is MISperception!

I had a customer yesterday who came into the store, practically in tears. Now, as a PC technician, I see this frequently from professionals when hard drives crash or their computer gets a virus. However, this customer was a different sort altogether!

The sweater didn't hide the bright orange shorts with the owl logo that so many fans of a particular restaurant immediately recognize. So she hands me her laptop, and says "it is a piece of crap, fix it". Well, having graduated high school with a GPA in the high 3's, I immediately recognized the difference between fecal matter and a laptop PC, so I gently corrected her..."Ma'am, this is a pretty expensive laptop computer, sort of a Mercedes among Yugos...what exactly is the problem with the computer?"

She composed herself enough to say, "Well, every time I turn it on, there's this voice coming out of the speakers and it is driving me nuts! And it is slowing everything down too! I can't even use this for my schoolwork!"

Immediately recognizing the initial problem as the Microsoft Narrator, I assured her that I could "shut the computer's voice up" in no time at all! I clicked on the EASE OF ACCESS CENTER, selected MAKE THE COMPUTER EASIER TO SEE, and unchecked the little box next to RUN NARRATOR AT STARTUP. I said "OK, that should silence your little problem. Is there..."

"Can you restart it just to make sure? I paid a lot of money for this computer and just haven't been able to use it!"

"Why, most certainly!" I responded, selecting RESTART from the start menu options. The computer restarted quickly and with no annoying narrator giving a play-by-play of each active window.

"Oh, wow, that is AWESOME!" she said. "I've spent hours on the phone with someone who I couldn't understand, and have sent this thing in for service twice and nobody could fix it! You are AMAZING!" She slid me a coupon for a free order of hot wings, grabbed her PC and practically bounced out of the store, exclaiming how she couldn't wait to get back home and start using her expensive computer. I reminded her that we were there for her at anytime in the future, should the need arise.

Amazing? $40 and a plate of wings for 5 minutes of work...I guess you could call it that. :) Oh, and I foresee more visits from this particular customer in the future.

I guess the moral of the story goes something like this: If you try to use a tube of caulk to pound in a nail, you're probably going to think that hammers are pieces of crap and the salesman who sold it to you is a moron.

My Lone Follower Is Now Gone!

I got the news today that a great friend, great person and my lone Blogspot follower Mike Netherland has passed away. Mike and I were friends in our high school days in Vicenza, Italy and touched bases with each other again during one of the fabulous VAHS all-year's reunions. We discovered that we had common passions in both conservative values and writing...although he far eclipsed me in the latter category, he became my lone follower here and provided me with humorous feedback on my relatively rare, but quite eloquent, blog posts.

To Dianne and the rest of the Netherland family: No amount of condolences are sufficient in this case, but you can rest assured that Mike was a great man and will be sorely missed by anyone who ever knew him...especially this old high school buddy. Best wishes to all in this difficult time.

Rest In Peace Buddy!