Lessons Learned From Decades Studying The Left

It will come as a surprise to many that I have long been a student of the left. I do not stay up late every night observing the far leftist talking heads, but I do pay close attention to their movements, their philosophies, and their evolutions over time.
 
The Bible teaches us that “…we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.” The Bible also tells us to, “Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour.”
 
Take a moment to consider those two elegant, powerful verses. They have more to teach us about politics than any political science textbook ever could. God warned us to always fight against wickedness. Every one of us should work to destroy the evils of this world like abortion, poverty, and spiritual darkness. We should stick to the issues and avoid personal attacks on our “flesh and blood” political opponents if we can. Policy differences are open for debate.
 
Now I’m not talking about Liberals in general, I’m only speaking about far left elitists. They are completely in a class by themselves. Most people do not fit there.  So what have I learned from observing the left over all of these years? 
A few key points come to mind. 
 
The first thing that I have learned is that for many on the left, the topic of the day is not what they really care about. Their chief concern is always giving themselves or the government more power. 
 
A great example was President Lyndon B. Johnson’s so-called “War On Poverty.” Johnson claimed to be a champion for the poor. Yet he only enacted policies that made people dependent on the government. The poverty rate increased during his time in office. He did manage to pour untold billions into programs to grow the “welfare trap,” making millions of people dependent on the state in the process. That is exactly what Johnson intended to do. It was always about power, not poverty. 
 
The second thing that I have learned is that Leftists tend to be perceived as more politically savvy than they really are. 
 
Do you remember hearing about a pundit named Nate Silver during the 2020 election? He runs a website called Five Thirty Eight, where he writes up predictions about elections and bashes Republicans along the way.

In 2008, a Guardian editorial heaped on the praise: 
 
“The 30-year-old uber-geek became a political oracle only after perfecting the analysis of baseball: his wizardly formulae predicted, with unnerving accuracy, how different pitchers would perform.” 
 
The problem? The “political oracle” and the rest of his counterparts in the mainstream media are consistently wrong. Consider the 2016 election, when Nate Silver famously wrote several articles about how Donald Trump had virtually no chance at winning the Republican primary or the 2016 general election. Media outlets continued to praise Nate Silver as a wizard who used data and science to prove that Republicans had virtually no chance of winning. 
 
Silver did a major about-face after that election. He admitted that “our early estimates of Trump’s chances weren’t based on a statistical model. Instead, they were what we called “subjective odds” — which is to say, educated guesses.”
 
I have had personal experience with people overestimating election outcomes. After a court redrawing of District 31, the district I represent, it was much more competitive. During the 2020 election, my opponent moved to Kernersville, specifically to run for office, and spent millions to win the seat I hold in the State Senate. This amount of money was unheard of for a state legislative seat. Many in political circles warned that I had no chance at winning. Media outlets and pundits predicted the demise of Republican majorities in Raleigh. Yet I won bigger than I ever thought possible and we gained seats in the Legislature. It is hard to “take the majority” when most people will not vote for you, no matter how much money you spend. 
 
I always laugh about the conspiracy theories that are out there about the “all powerful” elites on the left. People who believe them are giving too much credit. If people believe what they hear in the media, why are Republicans continuing to defy expectations? I would argue, and polls verify, the media is no longer trustworthy in the eyes of the American people. That’s a shame. The duty of the media is to shine the light so people can find their way. The media have failed the people. 
 
The most important thing I have learned from the left is that they have bad policies. This is why they are doomed to fail. Leftist policies have failed every time they’ve been tried. But leftists think it’s only because, a specific person or group wasn’t in charge. They just don’t “get it”. It is the policies they promote that are failures. 

 
Consider the current Joe Biden administration. President Biden has been in office for six months. We now have runaway illegal immigration, crime surging in most of America’s big cities thanks to the “defund the police” movement, and sky-high inflation. The New York Times just wrote a piece recently entitled, “Why $4-a-Gallon Gas May Be Coming Your Way This Summer.” Gas was under $2.50 under President Trump. There are no plans in place among Biden’s team to solve these problems that they have created. 
 
Our country is in a state of tremendous upheaval. But I have learned that things are almost never as bad as they seem. The 2022 election is right around the corner, and Nate Silver and the rest of the pundits are suspiciously quiet. They can feel a big red wave coming, and the best is yet to come.