The Decline And Fall Of The Progressive Left?

You Will Know Them By Their Fruits

Vigilante “justice” vs Good Samaritans
In the wake of the October 7^th Hamas attack on Israel, I wrote an article on the response of the progressive left and its clear moral decline. Upon reflection, I’ve changed my mind. What we are witnessing is not a moral decline as much as it is progressives revealing long-held beliefs that until recently had not been clear to the rest of society.

Progressives would no doubt define their values and principles of conduct as morality, it’s just that they’re so out of whack with mainstream Western values that they look immoral to the rest of us. Like the Aztecs who practiced mass human sacrifice, progressives have a decidedly anti-Western and anti-Christian view of right and wrong.

Take law and order as an example. The reaction of those on the progressive left to the recent murder of Brian Thompson, the CEO of UnitedHealthcare will come as no surprise to anyone who has been paying attention. Both Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) responded to the murder of Thompson with variations of “murder is wrong but” responses which justified or excused it because Thompon worked for an insurance company which has denied insurance claims.

In a typical progressive response Ocasio-Cortez claimed that denied claims could be viewed as “an act of violence” against those struggling with medical costs. Meanwhile the murderer, Luigi Mangione, a “handsome” and wealthy Ivy League graduate, is being held up as a hero online with some coming forward with offers of financial support and a GoFundMe campaign. I’m unaware of any offers to assist the widow and children of the murder victim.

Contrast the progressive reaction to this pre-meditated murder with that of the acquittal of Daniel Penny. As you may recall, last year Penny intervened on a subway train in New York City after Jordan Neely, “a 30-year-old homeless man with schizophrenia who had an active arrest warrant at the time, had barged onto the train shouting death threats while high on a type of synthetic marijuana known as K2.”

In the ensuing struggle, Neely died leading to Manhattan’s progressive DA Alvin Bragg charging Penny with manslaughter and criminally negligent homicide. Most rational people would agree that Penny was attempting to protect others on the train, that Neely’s death was a tragic accident, and the acquittal was the correct ruling. Progressives disagree and have suggested that it is indicative of racism, and bias against the poor and homeless. Tiffany Caban a council member for NYC Council 22 in Queens called it a lynching and “extrajudicial white supremacist violence” and Penny has been labeled “a racist, classist, ableist murderer.”

What progressives conveniently ignore is how dangerous life has become for law-abiding citizens who must use the subway. Crime statistics and the response by politicians provide clear proof of how dangerous the system has become. In response to a post-pandemic crime surge that has seen murders increase 200% and felony assaults rise 55%, 1000 National Guard members are now patrolling the subway system. This rise is partly caused by “bail reform” advocated by the progressive left.

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This is not the first time that progressives have revealed their dangerous ideas about justice to the world, but defending pre-meditated murder and trying to criminalize self-defense may be a new low.

Assisted Suicide or Euthanasia?
While self-defense can present some grey areas, especially around acceptable levels of violence, the moral distinction between self-defense and pre-meditated murder should be clear to anyone but the most ardent progressive. The fact that a jury acquitted Daniel Perry provides evidence that mainstream America has not been infected by progressive ideas (Kamala Harris’ loss provides further proof), but criminal justice is not the only area for concern, progressives are pushing other equally or more dangerous ideas.

Take “assisted dying” as an example. In the last 20 years, activists have continued to advance this progressive cause slowly making advances in individual states:

• 2008: Washington state passed the Washington Death with Dignity Act, becoming the second state to legalize assisted dying (Oregon was first in 1997).

• 2009: Montana's Supreme Court ruled in Baxter v. Montana that state law does not prohibit physician-assisted suicide.

• 2013: Vermont enacts the Patient Choice and Control at End of Life Act, becoming the first state to legalize assisted dying through legislation.

• 2015: California legalizes assisted dying with the End of Life Option Act following the highly publicized case of Brittany Maynard, a terminally ill woman who moved to Oregon to access assisted dying.

• 2016: Colorado voters approve the End of Life Options Act via referendum.

• 2019: New Jersey and Maine pass laws legalizing assisted dying.

• 2021: New Mexico legalizes assisted dying through the Elizabeth Whitefield End of Life Options Act.

• 2023: Vermont becomes the first state to remove the residency requirement for its assisted dying law.

I will confess that I’m inclined to support a person’s right to end their own life and am sympathetic to those who argue that it is a mercy in the case where an individual is suffering, and death is “reasonably foreseeable.” However, after 8 years of Medical Assistance in Dying (MAID) in Canada, several issues have arisen showing how slippery the assisted suicide slope can be:

• The line between assisted suicide, in which a terminally ill person is prescribing and self-administering barbiturates, and euthanasia, in which another person administers the drugs, has begun to blur.

• As is always the case with activists, you give them an inch and they take a mile. The following are some changes in the works for the program:

  • The requirement that patients must be 18 may soon change to allow “mature minors” and some are advocating for expanding it to “infants under one year old.”

  • The "reasonably foreseeable death" requirement has been removed and MAID is now accessible for individuals whose medical condition causes intolerable physical or psychological suffering, even if their death is not imminent.

  • Individuals with mental illness as their sole underlying condition will become eligible for MAID.

Clearly this was not how MAID was originally sold but one should not be surprised at the lack of ethical standards given it is an endeavor supported by the progressive left.

Even without these “desired” changes Canadians are already witness to the fact that killing its own citizens appears to be the one thing that the government does well. MAID deaths have risen every year since 2016 when it first rolled out.

2023 is no exception. Government data now shows that MAID accounted for 15,300 deaths or 4.7% of all deaths in Canada in 2023. Interestingly, MAID does not appear in the list of “Leading causes of death” on the Statistics Canada website (presumably MAID deaths are categorized under the underlying condition that led to the request). If it was included, MAID would be the 4^th leading cause of death in Canada.

MAID deaths would be even higher but almost 3000 people died of other causes before their MAID requests could be approved. It’s not quite a case of government bureaucracy saving lives but it’s likely as close as you’re going to get.

Should the government follow through with it’s plans to expand the program to people with mental illness it is not unreasonable to expect MAID to rise to number 3 on the list given that 47.1 percent of non-terminally ill Canadians who applied for MAID did so due to “isolation or loneliness” and 35.0 percent listed “emotional distress, anxiety, fear, or existential suffering” as the reason.

Progressives continue to view the world through an almost alien lense. Justice is not blind but rather dependent on knowing the socio-economic background of the accused and victim as well as the race, gender, and sexuality of both. Compassion is not about helping people deal with the difficulties of life but about helping them end it for a growing number of reasons.

Given the results of the recent US election, it is tempting to believe that the progressive movement is in retreat. Tempting but wrong. There is no evidence that the Democratic party has learned anything from its recent election so we should assume that progressive initiatives will remain in the forefront of Democratic policy for at least another election cycle or two.

This means we must be vigilante. Despite what the press would have us believe, it is not your “racist” uncle with outdated ideas who is the problem but your 20-something liberal arts major niece who is likely to do the most harm to society. Keep your eyes on where progressives are running and vote as if your life depended on it since it may very well be the case.

Wrong Speak is a free-expression platform that allows varying viewpoints. All views expressed in this article are the author's own.