Fight goes on against pillars of progressive philosophy

In the smoldering wake of what can only be called a Republican debacle, many pundits weighed in with their opinions on what happened. I did that as well, in a more limited capacity. But in the days after the election, one which dragged on interminably and unforgivably due to GOP negligence and Democratic exploitation, a few things became clear to me. Here they are:

Progressives want things, and they don’t want to pay for them. Conservatives want things too, but we manage to muster a bit of shame about our desire for acquisition. Progressives have no such reservations.

For example, my liberal sisters believe they have the right to have an abortion whenever and wherever the spirit moves them. They might give lip service to the concept of exceptions, but when you do suggest limitations, they balk.

Conservatives might be squeamish about drawing bright lines dissecting the specifics of abortion restrictions, but we generally accept that dominion over life and death should not be left to a mother and her obstetrician.

But we don’t have to get to life and death issues to see how differently the left and right deal with the world.

I attended a forum featuring a mayoral hopeful in Philadelphia named Helen Gym, a city councilwoman. She gave a progressive tell when someone asked her about the problems with trash collection. Gym stated that it was an issue of “equity.” She said that she had recently been to an elementary school graduation that was held on a playground. She lamented the fact that the kids and their parents, dressed so beautifully, had to walk by piles of trash that the city hadn’t yet picked up. And she suggested that in some neighborhoods, it was important to have twice-weekly pick ups, whereas in others, once a week was sufficient. That, she said, was equity.

I was astounded. My grandmother, who was poor most of her life, made it a point to scrub down the pavement in front of her Philadelphia row home every few days. Her house was immaculate. Her husband was a trash collector for the city of Philadelphia for many years, until he fell off of a truck and broke his back.

Poor people can pick up after themselves if they have a modicum of dignity. But the councilwoman was suggesting that if you live in certain neighborhoods, you need the government to hold your hand.

Another development that underlined the difference between liberal and conservative philosophy was the news that the Pennsylvania House had voted to impeach Philadelphia’s District Attorney, Larry Krasner. The mere fact that legislators — admittedly all Republicans — agreed to at least symbolically hold the criminally negligent prosecutor accountable for the rising homicide rate was great news.

It also reminded me once again of John Fetterman, our senator-elect, a man who never saw a “rehabilitated” felon he didn’t like.

His mantra was always “give the rehabilitated a new chance.”

And my thought is, who is going to give the murder victim a new chance? Who is going to give the murder victim’s grieving survivors a new chance at waking up free from the pain that will follow them through the rest of their lives? Not the sort of people who say “he paid his debt to society.”

If you take a life, the only way to pay that debt is to surrender your own.

And if the death penalty makes you cringe, life imprisonment with no parole is the answer.

These things: abortion, a desire for unlimited government aid, and a refusal to recognize the pain of victims define for me the philosophy of the progressives.

The fact that this philosophy was embraced by so many this month makes me infinitely sad.

It also makes me determined to rage against the dying of the light, and fight against abortion rights, fight for the rights of victims.

And, oh yeah, pick up my own trash.