Sorry for neglecting this place for so long. I’ll try to do a little better this year. I ran across something the other day that I shared over on FaceBook. If you’ve been a reader for a few years, you’ll know that I’ve come to the same conclusions as the author of the piece, Michael Smith. In fact, I said in the share, “This distills down what I’ve learned since I first awoke politically in 1994. 190 proof.” Please read:
If you are shocked by the Democrats panicked response to the probing of President Trump’s Emissary of Justice, Elon Musk, there is a way to frame it that makes it understandable.
First, we need to come to terms with the fact that contemporary Democrats, no matter what they choose to call themselves, are socialists at best and full-blown Marxists at worst.
In the same way a drug addict denies their addiction until they come to terms with what they are, Democrats have progressively increased their intake of various degrees of collectivist dogma until they are fully addicted. The gateway to collectivism is the idea of the “greater good,” from that they move on to socialism, then to Marxism, then finally in the end stages, communism – just as Marx prescribed and predicted.
Not only does this addiction have physical ramifications, but it also changes their mental state.
There is a word we all should know. That word is statolatry.
Economist Ludwig Von Mises coined the word to describe the literal worship of government. He said: “People frequently call socialism a religion, It is indeed the religion of self-deification.”
Statolatry is about worship for the state to replace a God they have rejected, a relationship with some entity more powerful than themselves to which they swear their love and fealty, the goal of which is to receive blessings (which are drawn the public till).
The people on the statolatrist left have landed on a toxic mixture of statism, politics, mysticism, and atheism rolled up into a loose ball called “progressivism” as a substitute for Judeo-Christian theology. Progressivism is as much a religion as Catholicism, it just replaces a Pope with government, counting on the senior leadership of the Democrat party to be their High Priests.
And in the process, this new religion became a very curious mix of the Tribunal of the Holy Office of the Inquisition (nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition!) and the Flagellants, the 13th century group of Roman Catholics who practiced mortification of the flesh by various means. Statolatrists find pleasure in their self-inflicted pain but really enjoy dosing it out to non-believers as well. It is also the harshest of mistresses – if a believer questions any tenet, there is no force on the planet that can protect them from the fury of the scorned. If they show less than total subservience and compliance, they are declared apostates and excommunicated immediately.
The problem is that no one really knows the rules of this new religion – they change to meet the needs of the moment. Often You can be right and wrong at the same time. What you can say or think and who you can say or think certain things about changes every minute – what was acceptable yesterday is not acceptable today and that random asymmetry makes it very difficult to fight on an individual level, so one must attack where the asymmetry is less and where their power resides, where it is concentrated.
With that framing, it becomes clear why Democrats have lost their minds about Elon and the DOGE Boys.
It is not just that their religion is being attacked, their god is under assault, and it is being attacked inside one of its temples no less – the House of USAID.
These temples are the repository of Democrat power, money and influence.
They also know this is only the first wave. President Trump intends to send his Muskian warriors raging and rampaging through the rest of the temples – Department of Education, the DOJ, the IRS, the Federal Reserve, and others – stripping them naked and laying them bare in public for all to see. Once and for all, the intent is to raze the temples to the ground and scatter the priests, acolytes, and minions to the four winds thereby ending this religion forever.
They also know the boldness, aggression, and Blitzkrieg-like fury of President Trump’s offensive has drawn even former enemies to his cause, he has massed a cadre of leaders from across the spectrum, some former priests themselves, all with a shared goal – to do what is right for the people, not the priests.
This is an existential event for statolatry, and perhaps even the Democrat Party.
And it is beautiful.
I had you read that as an introduction to this. A former coworker (a dozen years ago) is a full-blown Lefty. We’ve exchanged several comments regarding our different positions on FB. Here’s his response:
Complete and utter horseshit.
When pressed for detail, he came back with:
If you honestly believe that there is equivalency between religious autocracy and democratic principles, discourse, logic and public debate among citizens, you need to brush up on your history lessons of ancient Athens.
And if you don’t see benefits in the “greater good”, you need to get out more often. What is killing this country is economic inequality, which is making the losing side more desperate and ready to blame “Someone”. Along comes Trump who tells the losing side who to blame and they swallow it hook, line, and sinker. The so-called reforms that Trump and his handlers are blitzing will make life nearly unbearable for those without the financial resources to fight their way through it. The Rich will get richer, and the Poor will be defenseless and voiceless.
Most progressive countries are living better than the US. We are no longer a progressive county. We are a complete oligarchy heading rapidly towards a totalitarian oligarchy. Trump doesn’t have two brain cells to rub together but nobody seems to care because, oh, we’re whipping the libtards.
Let me simplify. Democracy is not a religion.
I told him that his response rated a real rebuttal, but at 9PM on my phone was not the place or the time. So today I fulfilled my promise. His response in italics, other quotes in bold.
“Democracy is not a religion.”
The idea of it, no. In practice, however the modern Democrat Party has become a cult, the cult isn’t “democracy,” it’s “Progressivism.”
“If you honestly believe that there is equivalency between religious autocracy and democratic principles, discourse, logic and public debate among citizens, you need to brush up on your history lessons of ancient Athens.”
If you honestly believe that the modern Democratic Party practices “democratic principles, discourse, logic and public debate among citizens,” you are a part of that cult.
“And if you don’t see benefits in the ‘greater good,’ you need to get out more often.”
Who decides? How are these decisions reached?
“What is killing this country is economic inequality, which is making the losing side more desperate and ready to blame ‘Someone’.”
I think that’s simplistic, but as a first-order approximation, it’s OK.
“Along comes Trump who tells the losing side who to blame and they swallow it hook, line, and sinker.”
Who does he say is to blame? Please provide examples. He pointed out that our tax dollars are being wasted, that the government is spending money it doesn’t have on things the public didn’t agree to DEMOCRATICALLY, and he promised to put a stop to it. Only two weeks in, and… WOW.
“The so-called reforms that Trump and his handlers are blitzing will make life nearly unbearable for those without the financial resources to fight their way through it.”
So your cult says. During his first four-year term Joe and Jane Average saw an increase in their income and buying power. Not so much for the last four.
“The Rich will get richer, and the Poor will be defenseless and voiceless.”
As occurred between 2020 and 2024, when HUGE sums were transferred to the wealthy, largely through government coffers, occurring UNDER A DEMOCRATIC ADMINISTRATION. This was, of course, shortly after the previous tremendous transfer of money to the wealthy after the collapse of 2008, laid directly at the feet of the Federal Government.
“Most progressive countries are living better than the US.”
Then find one you like better and MOVE THERE. We’re busy trying to fix THIS ONE.
“We are no longer a progressive county.”
If you capitalize “Progressive,” I certainly hope so. “Progressivism” is anything but.
“We are a complete oligarchy heading rapidly towards a totalitarian oligarchy.”
Nice of you to finally fucking NOTICE. The Ruling Party – made up of Democrats AND Republicans, AND the ultra-wealthy and their sycophants – has been gaining more and more control over the hoi polloi since the 1960’s. The recent exposure of the abuses of USAID illustrate that they long ago learned that they could undermine “democracy” using our own tax dollars to control The Narrative™, to stifle opposition, even to attempt “Regime Change.” Oh, and to also enrich themselves – you know, “The Rich get richer, the Poor, poorer.”
“Trump doesn’t have two brain cells to rub together but nobody seems to care because, oh, we’re whipping the libtards.”
He’s beating the Ruling Party like a drum set. What does that say about their vaunted intellectual capabilities?
You know when I figured out that you guys had become a religious cult? It was 2008, when it was explained to me in a fascinating book that the media was the Priesthood of the Left, standing between the Church of State and the laypeople, handing down Government’s edicts. It fit everything I’d learned up until then.
Michele Obama in a 2008 speech at UCLA said, “We have lost the understanding that in a democracy, we have a mutual obligation to one another, that we cannot measure our greatness in this society by the strongest and richest of us, but we have to measure out greatness by the least of these, that we have to compromise and sacrifice for one another in order to get things done. That is why I’m here, because Barack Obama is the only person in this race who understands that, that before we can work on the problems, we have to fix our souls. Our souls are broken in this nation.” If that’s not religious iconography, I don’t know what is.
Or how about this from Albert Gore Jr. in a 2010 NYT op-ed, “We Can’t Wish Away Climate Change” – “From the standpoint of governance, what is at stake is our ability to use the rule of law as an instrument of human redemption.”
That’s what ESG is – an attempt to legislate human redemption. Redemption for what? For Original Sin. What is that Original Sin? Depends on your particular sect of Progressivism. For the Environmentalists, it’s “Raping Gaia.” For many it’s Colonialism. For others, Capitalism. Look at the activist to find their particular favorite Sin.
Also in 2008 I read Jonah Goldberg’s Liberal Fascism from which came this quote:
“Fascism is a religion of the state. It assumes the organic unity of the body politic and longs for a national leader attuned to the will of the people. It is totalitarian in that it views everything as political and holds that any action by the state is justified to achieve the common good. It takes responsibility for all aspects of life, including our health and well-being, and seeks to impose uniformity of thought and action, whether by force or through regulation and social pressure. Everything, including the economy and religion, must be aligned with its objectives. Any rival identity is part of the “problem” and therefore is defined as the enemy.”
That too fit perfectly what I was observing. Note the use of “common good” here, semantically equal to “greater good.” And it was about this time that I understood that whatever it was the Left was accusing its enemies of, it had either done, was doing, or desperately wanted to do – thus the unending accusations of “FASCISM!”
He also wrote:
“Progressivism, liberalism, or whatever you want to call it has become an ideology of power. So long as liberals hold it, principles don’t matter. It also highlights the real fascist legacy of World War I and the New Deal: the notion that government action in the name of “good things” under the direction of “our people” is always and everywhere justified. Dissent by the right people is the highest form of patriotism. Dissent by the wrong people is troubling evidence of incipient fascism. The anti-dogmatism that progressives and fascists alike inherited from Pragmatism made the motives of the activist the only criteria for judging the legitimacy of action.”
That, too fit my observations.
In 2016 a poster at Reddit wrote an eloquent explanation of the Left’s reaction to Trump’s election, “Why Hollywood is really freaking out over Trump.” Of course it was quickly yanked from the site, but the Wayback machine still has a copy. From that essay:
“Blue Team Progressivism is a church, offering you moral superiority and a path to spiritual enlightenment. As a church it’s got a lot going for it. It runs religious programming on television, all day every day. Every modern primetime program is like a left-wing Andy Griffith show, reinforcing lessons of inclusion, tolerance, feminism, and anti-racism.
“Watching a 90-pound Sci-Fi heroine beat up a room full of giant evil men is as satisfying to the left as John Wayne westerns were for the right.
“The Blue Church controls the HR department, so even if you don’t go to church, you have to act like a loyal churchgoer in every way that matters while you’re on the clock. And off the clock, on any kind of public social media platform.
“Jon Stewart and John Oliver are basically TV preachers. Watching them gives the same sense of quiet superiority your grandma gets from watching The 700 Club. The messages are constantly reinforced, providing that lovely dopamine hit, like an angel’s voice whispering, “You’re right, you’re better, you’re winning.”
“Hollywood award shows are like church talent shows – the skits and jokes aren’t really funny, but it’s fun to look at the pretty girls, and you’re all on the same team.”
Spot. Fucking. ON. And you’ll notice that – democratically – Hollywood is failing these days.
You belong to a cult, Bill. You believe that you are good and pure, and that taking money from other people and giving it to the needy is noble and righteous, and anyone who questions that is obviously stupid. (See “two brain cells” above.) Your ideological brethren, however, don’t believe they’re stupid or ignorant. They believe anyone who opposes them must be EVIL. You’re still willing to engage because you still think that “discourse, logic and public debate among citizens” is what the Democrat Party is all about.
It’s not. And when they find out you still do, you might be excommunicated like all those who have #WalkedAway. And you know what you’ll discover? The difference between Progressivisim and all other religions: There is no redemption in the Progressive Church. They may take you back, but they’ll never trust you again.
You believe that Government is Good. It’s not. Government is a NECESSARY EVIL, best kept small and watched closely. Our elected representatives are not morally superior to the rest of us, in fact far too many of them are sociopaths with some very dark secrets. The Professional Managerial Class that makes up the bureaucracy? They are not our betters to whom we are supposed to kowtow, they’re supposed to be our employees carrying out our wishes.
Donald Trump is the result of the government failing to carry out the wishes of the MAJORITY for far, far too long. He may be the proverbial bull in the China shop, but hopefully it will be “creative destruction” that leaves behind something better, leaner, and more closely aligned with the Constitution.
I’m not holding my breath, but there’s no fucking way what we’ve been doing for the last sixty years can continue.
________________
Thoughts?
Edited to add:
“Most progressive countries are living better than the US.”
This is nonsense. Even apolitical Europeans have begun to realize that their living standards are actually equivalent to the worst US State standards of living.
People from the US vacation in Europe on the hog at the nicest resorts, but it’s a mirage.
They also have no idea how expensive everyday living is or of the basic amenities many don’t have. Not to mention what the real tax burden is. Things like cars, dishwashers, laundry at home are not nearly as common in the rest of the world. Even most of the poor have all 3 in America
It’s like a rich leftist visiting my city and staying at the swanky hotel DuPont, walking down the street to an expensive upscale bar, with no idea that a 5 minute walk away there are whole blocks of boarded up row homes in neighborhoods that democrats have been slowly destroying for decades
Spot on. The left sees this as a death match. One side or the other must be destroyed. Never mind that they will run out of money way too soon if we keep spending it like we are now. Today is what matters. Tomorrow may never come, or at least they won’t be around to take the blame when it does.
My favorite reference to help people understand why the progressive left believes the way they do is Thomas Sowell’s book “The Vision of the Anointed.” In short, their basic assumption is that Utopia is achievable by guiding humanity into their concept of perfection. If this sounds like “New Soviet Man,” give yourself a gold star. “Conservatives” believe that life is a series of tradeoffs and compromises. (I have a button that reads, Utopia is Not an Option.)
Sowell goes on to point out that many Progressive positions are just the polar opposite of a Conservative tenet. So “Criminals are bad and should be punished for their crimes” becomes “Criminals need to be understood, not punished, because reasons.” And that results of any particular program or policy are totally irrelevant, because only their self-satisfaction at being virtuous is important. Sounds like religion to me, too.
> Thoughts?
You missed one tiny detail:
“You believe that you are good and pure, and that taking money from other people and giving it to the needy is noble and righteous…”
You omitted “by force”…
“You believe that you are good and pure, and that taking money from other people by force and giving it to the needy is noble and righteous…”
Welcome back, and I hope you’re going to stay.
RE: “…It was 2008, when it was explained to me in a fascinating book that the media was the Priesthood of the Left, ” – what’s the book?
Elmer: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2891283-the-national-rifle-association-and-the-media?ac=1
I miss Brian Patrick. He died way too young. His work on understanding alternate communication networks was pure genius.
It’s just that nobody has gotten socialism and communism right yet. It led to 100 million plus deaths, but we should keep on trying because reasons.
You are so lucky. The tide is being turned….Here in England we have a lunatic government that are implementing exactly those type of “greater good” ideals. Pensioners freeze to death, farming families taxed off their land, military families taxed on the already pathetically low payouts for service member deaths, an open border that anyone can cross. A government that then deploys tax policy to deliberately crush the economy further.
You are literally evil if you are successful. If you own property, any assets, make profit, they will come for you. The list is endless….Who are the chosen few? Anyone who is not British, on our land or abroad. Signs of obvious virtue, that is all that matters, even if the action can never ultimately be virtuous. Our government hates Britain and hates Britons. No other conclusion is possible.
Thanks for sharing my work. Of course, I’m on Facebook where it can be found or at my Substack newsletter here: https://michaelsmith.substack.com/p/razing-the-temple-of-usaid.
Michael: My apologies for not giving you credit. I have put in a link and corrected that, but links to Facebook often don’t work for some reason.
Outstanding damned piece.
Progressivism may be a cult, but too many of its acolytes are in it for the money.
I have long maintained that the Democrat Party is not a political party, but a criminal conspiracy masquerading as a political party. They will do anything to maintain that conspiracy, including murder.
Trump and Musk’s Secret Service detail should be at least doubled.
This is one of the finest essays I’ve read in a while. I’ve shared it with my friends.
Michael Smith is worth the follow. Always has great columns.
Basic questions for the Progressive Left:
What are we progressing away from, and more importantly, what are we progressing toward?
Another
You omitted “the commission”…
“You believe that you are good and pure, and that taking money from other people by force and giving “a small portion of” it to the needy “after the payment of the support system we deem deserves whatever we deem it deserves” is noble and righteous…”
This may not include Tom’s Leftist correspondent, but it does so many others. Let’s lay out the whole thought, by including the grift, graft, inefficiency and waste:
“You believe that you are good and pure, and that taking money from other people by force and giving it to the needy (after skimming 90%, to feed the process and to line your and your friends’ pockets) is noble and righteous…”
Today’s Super Bowl ads from Elon Musk, plus Joe Rogan, plus X, plus every other non-legacy media outlet, is successfully convincing the majority of Americans to reject the unelected and unaccountable Administrative State’s insane USAID spending and the Democrats generally, notwithstanding the mainstream media’s vilification of Elon Musk into a Marvel comics level supervillain. The Trump Administration’s strategy of ‘flooding the zone’ perfectly fits the “promises made, promises kept” narrative.
One of the biggest but largely unnoticed strategic assets is Chief of Staff Susie Wiles. Here in Florida she has helped craft a strategy that has resulted in my state from being the quintessential 50/50 purple state in 2000 to gradually becoming a 52/48 state a few years later when Rick Scott defeated Charlie Crist, to now being essentially a 55/45 state.
The point here is that is only takes a shift of a few percentage points to bury the Democrats, whose meltdown and decision to die on the hill of USAID, combined with other issues like biological men participating in women’s sports, further facilitates this shift. As CNN’s lone conservative Scott Jennings notes, Donald Trump is baiting Democrats to publicly take the losing side on a host of 80/20 issues. You can add immigration and crime to this list.
I am proof that this strategy has worked in Florida and will work nationally. I was a lifelong Democrat until 2024. Although I did vote for Ross Perot, I had never in my life voted for a Republican until this past election. I volunteered on most Democratic Party campaigns and met Barack Obama, Michele Obama, and Joe Biden several times.
Yet now I see all that you see, and agree with all that you agree with, and want to see the Trump agenda proceed full speed ahead and fulfill the mandate, and achieve what I refer to as the “Florida strategy” of transforming a 50/50 electorate into a 55/45 electorate. I’d say we are off to a great start.
This is probably the best I’ve read about what’s been an obvious change in our country from when I first started paying attention some 40 years ago.. I’m 71. Thanks for making the effort.
I’m about to turn 63. It’s been a long 30 years.
Brilliant!
Utopians see the world in only two ways: the beehive or the machine. In the beehive, every bee has a programmed job, which serves “ the greater good”. Any bee who steps out of line threatens the smooth running of the hive, and must be eliminated. In the machine, every person is a gear that must mesh smoothly with all the other gears. The machine cannot tolerate a gear that doesn’t mesh; it must be removed or the machine will break down. In both cases, individual bees or gears threaten the life of the “ whole” and must be ruthlessly eliminated. This is why every utopian scheme will end up committing mass murder. It’s in its DNA.,
this is true . And add that they never take money for the poor out of their pockets just yours. Also when they claim its for something good , lets say housing, it never ends up that way.
Outcomes don’t matter. Only INTENT matters to the Left.
Nice but, I’d recommend that in the future, when you scrape someone’s Facebook feed and publish it that you give them credit in your write up. Simply saying, “I’ve come to the same conclusions as the author of the piece” is not enough. if you didn’t write it, source it.
Corrected. This was a copy-and-paste of the reply I left in comments to that Facebook post. I did not expect an Instalanche. Normally I’m very attentive about linking to the original source, but that doesn’t work in FB comments worth a damn.
Krauthammer explained it in 2002. Conservatives think liberals are wrong. Liberals think conservatives are evil.
Hubris. The left believes it is morally superior and thus entitled to play god in the lives of others. By force. They have no humility and thus, no wisdom.
It is they who are actually evil.
Lindy Li used the term “cult” to describe her friends in the party that have recently turned on her savagely for being honest about Biden’s senility and Kamala’s wasteful campaign.
The statolatry post was written by Michael Smith. You can find him on Facebook, Substack, and X. Just wanted to help you out with the attribution.
John Hardin: which is why my response to Leftists who claim it’s un-Christian to oppose their giveaways is to tell them to point me at the verse in the Bible that has Jesus defining charity as sending the legions out to extract alms at spear point for priests and rulers to distribute to a segment of the populace to the cheers of the recipients.
I’m still waiting….
_EXACTLY_.
“It ain’t charity if it’s collected at gunpoint.”
At the bottom of Statolotry is good old fashioned Rousseunian social compact and Greater Good Calculus, that holds that it’s someone’s duty to bring about the greatest good for the most people at the minumum cost to the fewest people. Since the Church had been discredited as the valid source of such Social Goodness, it therefore fell upon the State to implement the Social Calculus.
If you drill right down to the core axioms where the American people are irreconcilably divided, you will find the Social Calculus and the priority of the collective over the individual on one side, and on the other, the primacy of the Individual when operating within his just rights and prerogatives over the collective. One path leads to guillotines and gutters flowing with blood, and the other leads to a golden age of liberty and the prosperity that only freedom can generate.