Tag Archives: Hypocrite

Do leftists practice what they preach about helping others?

Neil Simpson has a post analyzing the giving patterns of Robin Hood Democrats.

Excerpt:

Consider how these Liberal heroes want to take your money to “give” to others but can’t manage any real and significant giving themselves.  If Joe Biden, for example, can’t afford to give more than 0.2% over his roughly quarter-million dollar income (that is point-two percent, not two percent — only $369 per year), then how could he possibly afford to pay increased taxes?  Oh yeah, there will be loopholes for him and those who vote for the tax increase bills.

His 0.2% giving and the percentages below are even worse than they look because they are based on Adjusted Gross Income, which is typically much less than gross income.

[…]A truly inconvenient truth: Al & Tipper Gore donated $353 of their 1997 income of $197,729, or 0.18%.  That is a fraction of 1%.  I wonder if he’s making real donations now that he’s getting rich off the AGW fraud?

Neil’s post has a lot more examples of leftists who preach one thing, but do the exact opposite in their own personal lives. I think that leftists are largely secular hedonists (regardless of their professed religious faith) and they therefore cannot rationally justify making sacrifices for others who may have a greater need than themselves – charity just doesn’t make them feel as good as keeping the money themselves. When they think that no one is watching, they do what’s consistent with their real beliefs: every man for himself and survival of the fittest.

A closer look at the life of Ted Kennedy

ECM sent me this magnificent essay about the life of Ted Kennedy.

I like this essay because it really explains where liberals get their liberal ideas. Ideas like bailouts, big spending, moral relativism and lack of personal responsibility, are the direct result of his silver-spoon upbringing.

Here are the topics:

  • his academic record, including his expulsion from Harvard for cheating
  • how his father pulled strings to shorten his Army contract
  • his sparse resume
  • his role in the death of Mary Jo Kopechne
  • the inconsistencies between his policies and his personal behavior

Excerpt:

Insulated by the consequences of his behavior, Kennedy was also shielded from the consequences of his policies. He was the champion of busing who kept his own children far from the public schools; an advocate of publicly funded campaigns who bankrolled his political career with his family’s shadowy financing; an icon of feminists who used women like Kleenex, serially harassed members of the opposite sex, and spent ten hours attempting to rescue his political career as he denied the young women suffocating in an air pocket in his Oldsmobile professional rescue attempts; and the primary booster of socialized medicine who assembled a dream team of neurosurgeons to consult on his treatment for brain cancer. The proverbial limousine liberal was made real in Trustfund Ted.

It’s fun to contrast this story with the life stories of self-made moms like Sarah Palin and Michele Bachmann. They started out in normal families, married and had children. There is a reason why people use expressions like “trust fund liberal” or “limousine liberal”.

Obama’s health care plan treats taxpayers like children

New video from the Acton Institute. (H/T Hot Air)

It’s a 4 minute video, and you will learn something new, guaranteed.

It’s important to understand what Democrats think of you. Do they trust you to earn your own money and to buy whatever you think is best for you? Or would they rather control you to keep you from misusing the freedoms they keep for themselves?

Consider this article by classical historian Victor Davis Hanson. (H/T Muddling Towards Maturity)

The article contrasts the public positions of elites with their own lifestyles:

  • environmentalists like Thomas Friedman and Al Gore
  • racism-hollerers like Henry Gates and Jeremiah Wright
  • socialists like John Edwards, Chris Dodd and Tom Daschle

This reminds me of historian Paul Johnson’s book “Intellectuals”, which was formative for me.

Learn more about health care with my previous posts on health care: