Going into the 2016 presidential election, the Left had all of the advantages working in their favor. They had a majority of the young people behind them; the Left controlled the Pop Culture; they controlled the media; most corporations kowtowed to the Left; they held positions of power within the government; and the Left controlled academia. In fact, for three generations, Cultural Marxism has been force fed to our children in major films, in the schools, and in every facet of life (which explains why so many of my fellow Millennials support socialism). It wasn’t only Millennials who were more sympathetic to the Left than the Right. More troublingly, many Baby Boomers were nominally center-Left.
On paper, at least, the Obama Administration’s former secretary of state, Hillary Clinton, was a shoo-in (especially considering the Clinton’s penchant for corruption). Throughout the 2016 election, the Democratic Party was akin to the ancient Greek mythological character of Icarus. In that tale, Icarus, the son of the talented Athenian artisan, Daedalus, was imprisoned on the island of Crete with his father. But, his father’s genius was able to concoct an escape plan from their island prison: Daedalus fashioned two pairs of wings made out of wax and feathers. However, Daedalus advised Icarus to follow his path in the sky closely; the wings were fragile and would require the user to maintain a steady balance; they could neither fly too low (the wetness from the sea would clog the feathers) nor could they fly too high (the heat from the sun would melt the wax wings).
Naturally, the young Icarus, once given the ultimate freedom of flight, opted to give way to his passion and arrogance: he ascended to extraordinary heights. Once in the upper atmosphere, the wax wings quickly melted away from the sun’s heat, and Icarus plunged into the sea below, where he drowned and died. The story is a parable meant to caution its readers about the excesses of hubris, and the dangers of overreaching.
The Left never learned that lesson.
The last two years have shown the Democrats to suffer the classic Greek moral malady of hubris. Despite having lost, the Democrats continue acting as though they are in charge. Rather than humble themselves in defeat, the Left insists that the election in 2016 was rigged. Like Icarus, the Left has ignored the lessons of their fathers and continued pushing themselves higher and higher — becoming inaccessible to us little people on the ground, and ultimately being forced back down to the ground in the most horrific manner imaginable. They have overreached with the ridiculous Russia investigation and the recent Brett Kavanaugh confirmation battle.
The Left didn’t understand the power they possessed in terms of the political culture. Just as Icarus squandered the rare gift of flight that Daedalus had provided him, the Democrats wasted their chance to get back at their Right-wing foes in 2018. Their antics; their hubris, has likely turned off enough Americans to their cause. Good for us on the Right, but it is a strange and unique thing to watch. All of the high-ground the Left possesses in the culture is irrelevant now. Rightists should be thankful and press their advantage now; the Left has never been this exposed.
All that the Left needed to do was maintain a low-profile. However, the Left went mad over its loss and made itself impotent with mindless rage. Having once been nominally perceived as the “party of the people,” the Democrats had spent the last eight years throwing away those blue-collar votes in exchange for the support of illegal immigrants, Wall Street executives, and transgendered folks (all five of them).
The Democratic Party became enslaved by Obama’s radical social views on everything from religion to sexual politics — and they became prideful that theirs was the morally superior viewpoint to many Americans who once considered themselves ardent Democrats. One could see hints of Obama’s dismal view of ordinary Americans in his famous 2008 description of many Americans who “bitterly cling to their guns and religion.” Michelle Obama also had made waves in 2008 when she publicly argued that, with her husband’s successful campaign for president, it was the first time she could “be proud” of America.
In fact, the entirety of Obama’s time in office can be described as nothing more than overreach. He kept pushing the limits of what was politically possible; from healthcare to illegal immigration; from foreign policy to the economy and gay marriage, Obama turned the Democratic Party into the democratic socialist party, in all but name. His was a presidency begging for a firm rebuke.
The Right has become united as never before, thanks to the Left’s hubris. The Democratic Party deserves the Icarus Syndrome that presently afflicts it.
