Shadow Beliefs: The Key to Understanding Liberal Stupdity

Some years ago I heard Oprah Winfrey talk about shadow beliefs. (Hey, don’t give me grief, I was home sick that day and do not make a habit of watching such drivel.) A shadow belief is one that influences your world view; you behave as if it is totally true, and yet, the belief is completely false. Since then, I have noticed that liberals are masters at holding and defending shadow beliefs. These beliefs bring comfort and often validate a person’s reason for existence. These otherwise gentle people will defend their shadow beliefs with hate-filled rancor and personal attacks if necessary. Conservatives are often baffled how much Liberal are impervious to reason and logic. Liberals often attack people of faith for having religious beliefs while holding to their shadow beliefs with equal fervor, attempting to expunge religious expression from public life while extolling their PC beliefs as the true orthodoxy. Although the irony is lost on Liberals because of their blinding arrogance, irony is yet another of their hallmarks. In our current discussions I would like to point out some of the shadow beliefs you are seeing in play.

Shadow Belief 1: Only the Federal Government can solve domestic problems.

This belief is largely driven by the fact the government has virtually limitless taxing power. Having limitless resources is useful in solving large problems. The truth is that the government can only tax up to the size of the economy and the more it taxes, the smaller the economy. Liberals like to talk about how much money this or that tax will raise and then act surprised when the numbers fail to materialize. I saw a poignant example of this on a recent trip to Savanna, GA. The lovely antebellum houses have balconies lined with ornate wrought-iron railing but there are no doors leading to any of the balconies. Instead, they are lined with floor-to-ceiling windows. This is because the British government taxed the number of external doors you have so people stopped making doors and just stepped onto the balconies through the large windows. The style is so ingrained in the architecture that over 300 years later, new buildings in the city mimic the design. Now I am sure some British law makers intended to raise a lot of money, not start a new building trend that would last forever but history is replete with examples of government intending one thing and getting something quite different. Furthermore, the fact that pyramid schemes are illegal in private enterprise means we understand how inherently dangerous they are but government is allowed to package them as Social Security, Medicaid and Medicare. All are going broke, as pyramid schemes do, and now they want to add health care? And if we continue to add $2 trillion to the national debt every year, I guess we will all find out where the resources of the Federal Government end.

Shadow Belief 2: Corporations are evil; Government is good.

From their tirade against Big Tobacco and Big Oil to their attacks on McDonald’s and Walmart, Liberals think corporations are out to get them. Current attacks against insurance companies continue the narrative. But corporations have created more wealth and made life better for more people than any government could. Where governments foster free enterprise and protect the right of corporations to operate, their people have become wealthy. In areas of the world where corporations are scarce or non-existent (largely due to adverse government action), people suffer crushing poverty. Placing sanctions on misbehaving governments is designed to drive out corporations to increase public hardship and, therefore, public pressure for reform.

Now the private sector does mess up but unlike the government, it self corrects quickly. Is anyone still complaining about the Edsel or platform shoes? But how many years are we to bemoan the state of public education, wonder why our food is literally being driven from the dinner table to our gas tanks, complain that our roads are full of potholes and our bridges are falling down? And while everyone knows what going Postal means, have you ever heard of someone going FedEx (other than someone trying to mail themselves to America from one of those flea-infested nations lacking a McDonald’s or a Walmart)?

Shadow Belief 3: Republicans are evil.

Perceived Republican sins make a lengthy list but two are particularly intriguing right now: Republicans are racist and want old people to suffer. Nancy Pelosi’s comments about town-hall protesters being Nazis flowed naturally from her inherent shadow belief. Dr. Hill, a distinguished professor and frequent guest on Fox News concluded that the protesters must be racist because they come from predominately white areas that voted heavily Republican. What other evidence did he offer? These people were old enough to have lived through the civil right movement and must have opposed it. They were not actually afraid of being condemned by Obama’s death panels but just disliked the President’s race. This stupid assumption about race played out in commercials when Bush ran and Liberals stated that more black churches would burn if Republicans were elected. More churches have burned and have been vandalized, but mostly all white. Yet you don’t see commercials warning that electing a liberal President who happens to be black, pretends to be Christian and is actually Muslim and listens to racist summons will cause more Christian churches to burn. That sounds almost as ridiculous as saying Obama care will create death panels. And while such panels may be one of the unintended consequences flowing from Shadow Belief 1, the Social Security Administration announced this week that benefit checks would be cut for each of the next two years. This while the government is wall to wall Democrat. I thought Democrats told us this would only happen if we elected Republicans.

So if you have a liberal friend who appears to get angry at you for no apparent reason, you probably stepped on one of their shadow beliefs. You might as well apologize now, because whether Grandma is done in by a death panel or the whole fiasco goes down in a blaze of glory, you and the virtually non-existent Republicans in Congress are getting the blame. How’s that for irony?