Why the Democrats became the Party of Weird

The Democratic Party Platform in ’64 consisted of a number of planks that would be well-suited for the recent pre-Trump conventions in 2008 and 2012.

1. Peace: Democrats emphasized their commitment to peace by recounting successful efforts in battling communists in Cuba, Southeast Asia, Latin America, Central Africa and Berlin.
2. National Defense: Touting the expansion of the Polaris nuclear missile arsenal from 100 to over 1000, Democrats bragged about maintaining “overwhelming supremacy” in nuclear strategic forces.
3. The Individual: A number of traditional Democratic initiatives were covered under this plank, including education, disease research and expansion of healthcare. They also made it a point to emphasize the importance of providing exceptional healthcare and benefits to our veterans.
4. Democracy of Opportunity: This was civil rights advocacy predicated on rejecting “quotas based on false distinctions.” Instead, Democrats promoted “full equality of opportunity.”
5. Economy: Democrats in 1964 recognized free enterprise as “one of the greatest achievements of the human mind and spirit.” They vowed to “seek further tax reductions,” and a balanced budget in a balanced economy was their goal.

When taken in total, there is nothing outlandish or even unreasonable about the Democratic party in 1964. In fact, I can envision the Republicans under McCain and Romney running on a more liberal platform than the one Johnson Democrats embraced. However, modern woke Democrats would have a collective aneurysm if the party ever advanced a platform containing such traditional concepts of freedom, prosperity, strong defense and capitalism.

Republican Ideals Remain Firm

Contrast the Democrat’s platform with the Republican platform from the same election:

1. To Stay Free: “Every person has the right to govern themselves, to fix their own goals and make their own way with a minimum of government interference.” The government should only act when it has Constitutional authority.
2. Faith in the Individual: This is achieved through enlargement of employment opportunities, a strong Social Security system covering full medical costs of the elderly, tax credits for those burdened by college expenses, increasing benefits for low-income pensioners, freedom of religious expression, opposition to racial discrimination and the reduction in personal and corporate tax rates.
3. Faith in the Competitive System: Republicans in 1964 wanted to “protect the dynamo of economic growth” (and) free competitive enterprises through tax code simplification while reducing “power grabbing” regulations and promoting export opportunities.
4. Faith In Limited Government: The best government is one with effective, but limited, powers that meet its Constitutional responsibilities.
5. Reduce the Risks of War: By rejecting appeasement, Republicans in 1964 believed the chances of war would diminish. They believed in the idea that foreign policy is judged by its success in advancing freedom, not by its impact on public opinion polls.

With few exceptions, modern Republicans have remained true to the concepts and ideals expressed by the party some 60 years ago. Remember, this was the presidential campaign of Barry Goldwater, considered by many on the left to be the most extreme Republican presidential candidate in modern history.

Democrats Become the Party of Psychosis

In the future, when the woke movement has collapsed and faded into oblivion, historians and Washington think tanks will stew on the issue for decades, deeply exploring the social and geopolitical root causes of Woke’s collective psychosis. Yet, for all their bombast and posturing, academia will almost assuredly miss the mark as usual.

The modern progressive movement is characterized by two predominant traits: self-righteousness and self-loathing. Their sanctimony is apparent in every issue they perceive as an opportunity to contrast their moral superiority to others. The self-righteous always need a villain, a prop who is used solely for comparison. When you’re woke, it feels good to label someone as a “racist” because it confirms your own moral superiority relative to the person who stands accused of the transgression.

Self-loathing comes from a sense of insecurity and lack of self-esteem. Have you ever seen a woke progressive who wasn’t angry about something? They despise the people who spend their lives in a state of happiness and gratitude. For the self-loathing person, there is too much injustice in the world to be wasting time having fun. That is why Woke sucks the enjoyment out of everything it touches.

The Self-Righteous Control the Democrat Party

The reason the Democratic party has deteriorated from something respectable into something insane is because self-righteousness is like a drug to these people. The pursuit of the high comes from winning. Winning on civil rights in the 1960s; winning on the environment in the 1970s; winning on Nixon’s impeachment; winning on gay marriage… With every victory, the hunger for self-confirmation grows, and without it, the sense of self-loathing returns. It’s like an endless black hole that can never be filled.

Look at a few of the many examples of sanctimony that has spiraled out of control:

1. PETA started as an organization that wanted to stop the practice of cosmetic manufacturers subjecting lab animals to caustic chemical testing. Today, they fight to end something they call “speciesism,” which is some nonsense about discrimination against animals. They demand animals be given the same protected rights as humans.
2. The civil rights movement was founded on the principle of judging a person by the content of their character instead of the color of their skin. Today, the movement wants to implement a school curriculum promoting the idea that white people are inherently racist, and minorities are helpless victims.
3. The 1970s environmental movement created quantifiable standards that helped significantly reduce water and air pollution. Today, radical environmentalists work to force you into public transportation, regulate your energy use and kill off entire industries, all based on speculative climate theories.

Whenever they encounter resistance, the self-righteous throw a collective temper tantrum, which, in recent years, has become increasingly violent. However, we no longer have the luxury of assuaging these disturbed narcissists. Visions of a future where their escalating thirst for a sense of self-worth forces increasingly bizarre and oppressive policies on the rest of us is extremely unsettling.

The process will be difficult and painful, but it’s time for Woke to enter detox and start weaning themselves off the drug of sanctimony.