Can you think of a policy that the 21st-century "liberals" pursue that actually results in the advertised outcomes?

Seriously, can you? The energy transition? Maybe rail transit? Homeless policies? Drug legalization and "harm reduction?" Immigration? Gender-affirming care? Education policies? Affordable housing? Criminal justice reform? Public health policies in recent years? 

Every liberal policy makes things worse. It is almost an iron law. Conservatives may often get it wrong, or not execute well, or not do enough, but there are plenty of successes

I can't, and I have often wondered why. It's not that liberals are stupid, and I continue to deny that the ordinary liberal voter (rather than the self-described "liberals" at the top who are just gaslighting the rest) is anything other than a generally well-intentioned, low-information voter who is persuaded by the emotionally charged appeals of the elite left. 

I know plenty of good, decent liberal people who really believe their leaders and "influencers" are trying to make the world a better place and who are outraged whenever a conservative criticizes or tries to defund an obviously destructive program or policy. 

To me, the interesting question is, why, after all the evidence that liberal policies fail time and again, do these liberals act like Charlie Brown trusting Lucy with the football? How can people look at Chicago, San Francisco, Portland, or Seattle and not recoil and reconsider their allegiances? 

The answer, I think, is the power that liberals give to words and ideas, and a fundamental rejection of the demand that good ideas should lead to good results. Words are like magical incantations, and more real than what they see before their eyes. To the extent that there is a disconnect between what the words promise and the results show, it is because people have not sacrificed enough to the gods through increased taxes and reduced freedoms. 

Think of this in terms of the Aztecs' response to the invasion of the Conquistadors. The Aztec Empire was huge and ruled over about 6 million people. Cortez led about 500 Conquistadors and managed to conquer that empire in some of the most hostile conditions faced by Europeans in their history. 

Nobody knows how many people the Aztecs sacrificed specifically to petition the gods to help them fight off the Spanish and their indigenous allies, but it could not have been a small number. Unfortunately, as with everything else these days, there is an ideological fight over the scale of these sacrifices--you can't make indigenous peoples look bad, you know. 

Beege has written a lot about how Europe and various countries have been sacrificing their access to energy to appease the climate gods, and the results have been disastrous for Europe. Despite all the promises of cheap, abundant energy and a happy Gaia, the results have been non-existent economic growth, deindustrialization, and the destabilization of political regimes in Europe. 

Mass immigration was supposed to revitalize Europe and America--diversity being our strength!--and lead to stronger communities, a more compassionate society, and of course better restaurants. How has that worked out for us? Politics in every Western country has been upended, and our fine, compassionate leaders have turned on their own citizens to suppress dissent. 

Criminal justice reform? Enough said. 

How about the explosion of "Social and Emotional Learning," including the spread of alphabet ideology and "inclusiveness" training? We are told that this is necessary for the mental well-being of children and suicide prevention, yet the mental health crisis has exploded and suicide among children has skyrocketed. 

The war against disease? The vaccine, social distancing, masks, and "following the science" would eradicate COVID-19. We are still paying a huge price for that, and everybody knows it. But liberals still applaud the people who imposed the COVID fascist regime because they meant well, and some still blame the dissenters for not making the magic incantations work well enough. 

We can argue about how evil or merely stupid the "experts" were--as you know, I believe they were evil--but most liberals will defend all of these policies and more as well-intentioned, and never hold accountable the people who have been destroying everything they touch. Moreover, they still hate the people who got any or all of these policies right as evil and ill-intentioned.

It's the words and the emotions they invoke. Spin a yarn about some horrible thing that is happening, and present a nice-sounding magical solution, and liberals are all in every time. Trains will turn cities into utopias, and the fact that they are empty but for drug dealers and users and the prime location for overdoses is no barrier to signing up to build the next light rail. 

"I have a plan to end homelessness!" The fact that homelessness increases just proves that we didn't sacrifice enough to the homeless gods to make the magic work. 

Consequences don't matter in this world, and policymakers know that. In government, every failure proves the need for bigger government and more spending--liberals actually give more money and power the more you fail--so the leaders produce more pretty words and more actual failures, and liberals get angry at you for pointing to those failures. 

They point to the words and say that intentions are good so the actual results don't matter.