Senator Bernard Sanders (I-Vermont) (left), Chairman of the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee, joined Dr. Robert A. Petzel, Under Secretary for Health, in highlighting how VA is bridging health care and information technology. (Photo courtesy of VA)
There are no shades of grey in the speeches of Liz Warren and Bernie Sanders. According to the hard left in America today, if you oppose any part of the progressive vision for America, you are branded a bigoted, racist, crony capitalist, and with even more detest, a Trump supporter.
As Newt Gingrich reminds readers in a Fox News opinion piece, that same self-righteousness was on display during the epically failed campaign of George McGovern in 1972.
Gingrich explains that Democrats like Warren and Sanders will fail because of their “totalitarian belief that they are moral and their opponents are immoral – and therefore anything is justified to impose righteousness on the impure.” Gingrich writes (abridged):
The 2020 election is a continuation of a conflict about the nature of America that began in the 1960s. We saw the first clear, vivid political collision of that conflict in 1972.
The liberalism which had dominated the Democratic Party from President Franklin D. Roosevelt through President John F. Kennedy began to be replaced in the 1960s.
In the 1960s, there was a swirling together of the Free Speech Movement, the civil rights movement, the women’s rights movement, the breakdown of sexual inhibition, the rise of “black power” as an ideology, the gay rights movement, the anti-war movement (with a radical wing willing to bomb professors and innocent citizens), and the collapse of the idea of law and order – leading to a dramatic rise in crime and violence in virtually all of our major cities.
By 1968, Richard Nixon could campaign on “law and order” as a central theme, and it resonated with millions of Americans.
After the 1968 election, the two parties began moving in diametrically opposed directions. Southern whites, in general, and Northern blue-collar voters (often of Catholic background) were being driven toward the Republicans by the threat of a radically changed America. On the other hand, the Democrats were increasingly dominated by the demands of the left.
It was this spirit of ruthless imposition of the true faith which led to George McGovern and the worst Democratic defeat in modern times.
The next time you listen to Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., or Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., you will hear the echo of this totalitarian belief that they are moral and their opponents are immoral – and therefore anything is justified to impose righteousness on the impure.
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