America is about as divided today as it has been in decades. The social divisions in many ways mirror those of the 1960s, although back then, the big issues on which we were divided were war and peace, and civil rights vs. racial segregation.
Today, the issues are more bizarre: alphabet ideology, racial hoaxes, and the fate of an MS 13 gang member and Tren de Aragua. History repeats itself, first as tragedy, second as farce. Marx said that, riffing on a Hegelian idea. It was one of the few insightful things Marx said.
The clash of ideas in the 60s was more consequential in one sense--the issues were generally larger, and the revolutionaries had a much better case substantively. What the conservatives had on their side was a commitment to practicality that was utterly absent on the left. Their causes were just, but how they pursued them was highly destructive, even and especially to the people they claimed to be fighting for.
The fall of Vietnam led to the killing fields and Pol Pot, and the way the Civil Rights movement played out led to the destruction of the Black family, the creation of slums, and the hollowing out of our cities. Crime escalated, and the black middle class was devastated. The disastrous 70s were a direct result of the 60s excesses.
The causes of the left today are mostly stupid. The issues are invented or perverse, and the concern for consequences is, if possible, even less important.
A case in point is Portland, although you could say the same about San Francisco or Chicago. Left-wing policies that are ostensibly based on a concern for "social justice" are a farce. "Social justice" is a gauzy term to begin with--not as concrete as ensuring the Civil Rights of all citizens--an ideal we can all understand and, in principle, get behind. "Social justice" just means bringing down "the Man" and seizing power.
OregonLive: New data yesterday shows a stunning local reality: 14,824 people living in the county were homeless… Of those, 6,796 people are living outside… That’s more than double the homeless population recorded… in January 2023. https://t.co/TJqWTkJXD4
— Sam Adams PDX (@SamAdamsPDX) April 17, 2025
At least you can point to concrete wins from the '60s psotests in the passage of the Civil Rights Act. The price was too high, and the later interpretation of the law leaves a lot to be desired, the path was already set in the 1950s, but still, the law formally acknowledged that blacks and whites have the same rights.
Current leftist policies are 100% awful. The moralism appeals to a certain class of people, but when push comes to shove everything the left touches turns to a pile of dung.
— Conservative in Oregon (@oregonducksmama) April 17, 2025
This fact seems to penetrate not at all. If a politician articulates the intentions of the policies articulately enough, the fact that they invariably lead to consequences that even they acknowledge are awful doesn't matter a whit. "We are going to end homelessness" is music to the ears of liberal-leaning people, and the mere fact that the opposite is true, was predicted, and that things are made worse for everybody is a detail easy to ignore.
This video is not from 2020;
— Brandon Farley (Archived) (@TheRealFarley) February 19, 2025
I filmed it today outside of the Multnomah County Health Department in Downtown #Portland.
That's right. We're going back to COVID Lockdown-era levels of homelessness.
This is the result of voting for JVP, Kotex, Wilson, & the Woke Commissioners. pic.twitter.com/S7XOOBV9mn
The same is true for alphabet ideology, illegal immigration, education spending, COVID policies, and everything else is absolutely irrelevant. What matters is the words. Not even the intent, but the expression of intent. Does anybody seriously believe that Portland's or San Francisco's homeless policies were actually intended to eradicate homelessness?
I don't. Any sane person with a passing familiarity with government knew or should have known that liberal policies would make things worse. Gavin Newsom, for instance, is 18 years into his 10-year plan to end homelessness, and every single person involved in governance knew that it was all horse manure.
But for the people who vote for him, simple matters like practical results don't matter. If he runs for president, Newsom will get millions of votes.
In startling news, Portland’s homeless population increased by 26% from January ‘24 to February of ‘25, a period of 13 months, or an average of 2% per month - 200 new homeless every month.
— PDX Real (@PDXReal1) April 18, 2025
Of these, 7500 (51%) are “chronically homeless,” 6800 (46%) are “unsheltered homeless.”
The same can be said for the illegal immigration problem. Trump is pushing the limits of his Constitutional powers--I think his case that his moves are legal is pretty strong, but hardly impregnable--but the passion with which he is opposed has little to do with the Constitution and everything to do with the fact that his words are not pretty.
A sitting US Senator flew to El Salvador to have a lovefest with an MS 13 member--a truly insane visual--and he gets applauded by the left, and the entire party apparatus gets behind him because they can say gauzy things that sound good to the ears of liberals. The fact that he was a wife-beater and involved in human trafficking is a detail, as if the fact that in cities around America, the social service infrastructure is breaking.
Mere practical matters are a distraction. Form, not function, is the key.
Portland, a once-great city, is a pit. It mirrors a third-world country, but its leaders will be applauded. COVID policies devastated an entire generation of children, but that was a small price to pay for rejecting Donald Trump's advice. Florida is thriving while California is bleeding population, but Newsom is good-looking and says the right things.
The passion on the far left is driven by pushing for the destruction of our society. They see the decline of America as a good thing. That isn't true of the ordinary liberal. They see the destruction and lament it; they simply blame conservatives because we say the wrong things. Rudy Giuliani returned New York to its former glory, but they see him as too mean, so they drifted back to Bill de Blasio after Bloomberg left.
Politics is about practical results. That doesn't mean it should be divorced from principle, but principles must be married to results, or the principles themselves are destroyed along with the cities. If things decline, even the principles are devalued. It's a version of Maslow's hierarchy of needs. Care for the higher goals gets subordinated to the more basic goals.
Nobody cares about principles if people aren't safe and cities don't run well. They become irrelevant.
America's commitment to democracy and the Constitution is based on something even more basic than due process and civil rights; Americans love those things, but if our cities are unsafe, our quality of life is declining, and the only thing left is the pretty words, our country will eventually fall apart.
Principles matter a lot, but without a government that works, they will fall by the wayside.
It's difficult for people who live comfortably to understand that Jack Nicholson, not Tom Cruise, is the hero of A Few Good Men. His speech from the witness box told a basic truth: that what is good and right and just about America is built upon a foundation of raw power. It's no secret why America is or was the freest, most prosperous country in the world.
It's because we can defend it, and the principles we hold dear with guns. It is those aircraft carries, drones, planes, and Marines who make America possible.
Practical results matter.
