Progressives Deconstructed

And about time. “I’d rather talk about Luddite liberals and insufferable progressives,” Pepperdine historian Gordon Lloyd said at the Philadelphia Society’s annual meeting.

For its part, the Philadelphia Society provided a receptive audience for the topic. The Society was founded in 1964 by conservative intellectuals in the wake of the Goldwater defeat. Thus, the word Philadelphia in the title is a reference to the spirit of 1776 and many of its annual meetings take place outside the City of Brotherly Love.

Lloyd, at this year’s meeting in Chicago, dismissed the “libertarian Left” as “a perverse Libertarianism.”  Born in the West Indies and raised in Canada, he has developed a heightened appreciation of the American Constitution and become a lifelong student and scholar of the document.

His definition of liberty stems from that of America’s founding fathers.  “One reason the progressives have been successful is that they have been detaching every single generation from the Founding,” Lloyd averred. “Progressives paint a pretty picture.”

As well, “progressives expect conservatives to accept certain things,” he notes.

“I think progressives should accept certain things, like God and guns ain’t going nowhere,” Lloyd said.

Lloyd also dismissed the notion that, “As long as there’s one child left behind, no matter how dumb, we have failed.” Such an idea could only be concocted by people, Lloyd ruminated, “coming from the Department of Education, which means they’re failed academics.”