Progressives live in a world of alternate reality where common sense doesn’t exist.
Democrat LBJ’s “Great Society” in 1965 was an utter failure but it ballooned the size of the federal bureaucracy moving us closer to a Marxist welfare state. That welfare state existing simultaneously with their open border idea is totally incompatible.
Another example is when ignorance intersects with arrogance. Gov Kathy Hochul, D-NY, told Republican voters to “jump on a bus and head down to Florida where you belong. Get out of town”(NY Post, T Hoefer 8/25/22). Later, she stated, “we must reverse the trend of people leaving our state” (WHAM News, 1/1/22). Since 2019, over 2,000 millionaires have left NY (NY Post 12/27/22).
Finally, Climate Hysteria is getting crazier by the day, as a NY Times guest essayist, Mara Altman (1/1/23), proposed “as resources become scarcer because of population growth and global warming, short people may be best suited for survival (and not just because more of them will be able to jam into spaceships when we are forced off this planet we wrecked).” She also suggested short people should purposely mate with other short people to produce a shorter society.
I rest my case.
Ralph Miller
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Mr. Ralph Miller’s letter is an example of furthering the division within our country. He uses only three examples, each definitively incorrect, erroneous or lacking context, to paint all progressives as living in a world of alternate reality where common sense doesn’t exist.
Before continuing, I will thank him for including links in his letter. The links enable anyone who wishes to take Mr. Miller's letter with a grain of salt, like me, to fact check and contextualize his narrative.
Mr. Miller began by opining "Democrat LBJ’s “Great Society” in 1965 was an utter failure . . ."
This is a totally incorrect statement.
"The Great Society" encompassed multiple new major federal programs from 1965 until 1968 that are still in effect today. The programs addressed education, medical care, urban problems, rural poverty, transportation and consumer laws. (Wikipedia)
For brevity, new laws were Medicare, The Civil Rights Act of 1964, The Voting Rights Act of 1965, The Civil Rights Act of 1968, the Food Stamp Act of 1964, The Cigarette Labeling and Advertising Act of 1965, The Motor Vehicle Safety Act of 1966, The Fair Packaging and Labeling Act, The Child Safety Act of 1966, The Wholesome Meat Act of 1967, and The Truth In Lending Act of 1968.
The Great Society's programs expanded under the administrations of Republican Presidents Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford. Examples are the Fair Credit Reporting Act of 1971 and Consumer Safety Product Commission laws of 1974 and 1976. So much for “alternate reality”.
Mr. Miller’s next described NY Gov. Kathy Hochul’s telling Republican voters to go to Florida. This needs context.
In August 2022, during her gubernatorial campaign against Rep. Lee Zeldin, R-N.Y., Hochul stated “We’re here to say that the era of Trump and Zeldin and Molinaro – just jump on a bus and head down to Florida where you belong. Get out of town.” She defended her comments as being specifically directed at Zeldin, Trump and Molinaro, not voters. Every conservative media, like lemmings, painted that statement with a broad brush to include the Republicans voters, when it’s merely campaign rhetoric. (FoxNews.com, WorldTribune.com, ConservativeInstitute.org, et.al.)
Mr. Miller closes by citing an article by NY Times Guest Essayist Mara Altman entitled" There Has Never Been a Better Time to Be Short".
His cite is contextually erroneous. Just a single opinion from a poised and elegant essay on being short is cited. That single opinion is used to spuriously and maliciously attack both progressives and climate change.
Ms. Altman’s essay was neither about climate change nor progressives.
She championed her and her husband’s heights, 5 feet and 5 feet 6. She pointed out how society has always valued height and size, and I'll add beauty. Remember “The Napoleon Complex”? Similarly, consider the perception of beauty in advertising and society. To whom do you pay more attention?
She wrote, “Our success as (shorter) individuals does not depend on beating up other people or animals. Even if it did, in an era of guns and drones, being tall now just makes you a bigger target.”
No, Mr. Miller. Progressives do not live in a world of alternate reality where common sense doesn’t exist. But too many progressives and conservatives live in a world where the other is the enemy, despite all of us being Americans.
Joe Warren