The Seven Habits of Highly Dysfunctional Liberals - As a black conservative, my political coming of age has been nothing if not an extended process of self-examination, thinking things over a second, third or even a forth time. I naturally assume that when people take political positions, their positions are the result of an equally exhaustive thought process. But perhaps I take too much for granted in assuming that the actions of the Left similarly stem from any sort of thinking at all. Indeed, it is apparent that we are living in the twilight of thoughtful, reasoned liberalism.

By my lights, much of normal human behavior is directed by at least one of four currents, namely biology – the collection of physical, hormonal and biochemical idiosyncrasies that enable or restrict individual behavior – along with emotion, reason and faith, particularly religious faith. When these guiding currents are corrupted by the worst of human nature, the psychology of emotions yields to impulse. Faith and reason yield to mindless canon. Indeed, liberals today seem more than eager to substitute dogma for reason and confuse empty gestures with positive action. And as often as progressives do this, they demonstrate their propensity to replace meaningful standards of behavior for ephemeral ones. Indeed, the actions of the modern Left seem to be animated by compulsions of a manner and type that are wholly unfamiliar to conservatives, their compulsions serving to help them deal with the absence of a coherent and articulatable belief system. Today’s liberals appear to be driven by dynamics that are almost exclusive of reason, logic and what used to be considered common sense.

In upcoming posts, we will examine some of these dynamics, and in so doing, seek to gain a better understanding of what the future holds in the advent of an ascendant Democratic Congress.