Once upon a time, it used to be leftists or “liberals” who told conservatives, “You can’t legislate morality.” They referred to matters such as birth control, abortion, drug use, prayer in schools and so forth.

Now it’s completely different. It’s not that leftists changed their positions on those issues. It’s just that they won. And in their victory, they’re ready to impose what they consider morality in an unlimited number of ways they never would have permitted conservatives, in the old days.

Take environmentalism. It’s an urban religion. It’s a philosophy based on the idea that man rapes the earth, via use of fossil fuels and technological progress, and therefore man must atone. It’s a lot like old fashioned religion. “Stop enjoying life so much. Don’t be greedy!” Instead of God, progressivism promotes Mother Earth, but psychologically it’s kind of the same thing. EPA regulations, issued without concern for Constitutional or property rights on a daily basis by the Obama administration, are based on the idea that most of mankind’s technological development is immoral, and we have to atone.

Consider reform of Wall Street. A proper, rational reform of Wall Street would be to remove all subsidies and favor-creating regulations from the marketplace. Permit financial institutions to do what they please, in the pursuit of profit and to please customers, and without government interference other than in the case of objectively proven fraud. That’s not how the left seeks to reform Wall Street. Like tobacco companies, the left — represented best by Hillary Clinton — loves Wall Street for the money, so they can shake it down for their causes and agencies. It’s all the Lord’s work, reframed — in contemporary terms — as progressive action for “change.”

Consider gay marriage. The movement for gay marriage does not stop with simply allowing consenting adults to contract and assign property rights to one another as they please. Bakeries and other private enterprises must be forced to endorse and participate in gay marriages, by making wedding cakes for customers, simply because a customer asserts an entitlement to it. Imagine if government intervened to force gay bakeries to make wedding cakes for anti-gay organizations? The outrage would be deafening, and justifiably so. But not when it’s the other way around. Like any religion given government power, the religion of progressivism is a hypocritical one-way street.

Consider taxation. Progressive taxation is a moral crusade. It’s based on the religious-like belief that man’s primary purpose in life is to serve others. According to the religion of government progressivism, one must “tithe” ever-increasing portions of one’s wealth, even when honestly attained, to the God of Government. It’s not optional. It has nothing whatsoever to do with protecting rights — e.g., the right to life, liberty, property, or the pursuit of happiness. It has everything to do with imposing a particular viewpoint about ethics and obligation as a matter of law.

Nothing in the progressive agenda is subject to question or debate. If you haven’t noticed, progressive leftist Democrats do not take well to disagreement. And when people begin to dispute any particular aspect of their social-political faith, they’re faced with the prospect of President Obama handing over control of the Internet to a socialist-authoritarian dictatorship known as the United Nations. Or Obama’s Attorney General threatening to criminally prosecute people who criticize Islam or challenge “climate change science.” When dissenters try to launch campaigns to elect different kinds of candidates to power, they’re hunted down by the IRS and the Federal Election Commission, like the Tea Party was, and no matter what the Supreme Court says. After progressive Hillary Clinton is elected, as they hope, the Supreme Court will then be stacked forever with Justices who won’t permit dissension anyway.

Progressivism is a secular religion of government. It’s based on force, no different from the Christian Church dictatorship of the Middle Ages. The only difference is progressives pretend to be enlightened, sophisticated and committed to equality for all. But nobody is equal under a progressive regime. Only those who agree have rights. There’s nothing sophisticated about force, and virtually every single progressive proposal (taxation, regulation, redistribution) relies on the use of brute force. Leftists and progressives are no more sophisticated or enlightened than Mafia or Mob gangsters, although they’re far less honest about it.

Legislating morality through the use of force is one of the most immoral things imaginable. It was evil when the Christians did it, when the Muslims try to do it, and when secular progressives do it. They’re all the same, in practice and in principle.

Progressivism is the modern, secular equivalent of hell-fire and damnation. The only difference is that thanks to progressives, hell is totally here on earth. It consists of being forced to submit to their edicts and living your life under the rule of the dysfunctional, narcissistic, corrupt, and unaccountable officials who dominate their movement.

Standing up to these bullies takes confidence and strength, to be sure. But they’d melt away faster than the Wicked Witch in the Wizard of Oz, if we only had the will to take away their power.

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