Why do leftists want strong government but elect weak leaders?

For years I’ve been puzzled by the left’s odd combination of arrogance and self-loathing. They think there is no God higher than themselves, so they can do whatever they want without being held accountable for their actions. They also view humans as a blight on the planet, and you shouldn’t be allowed to do whatever you want – you can’t drive an SUV, for example. But abortion is okay. It takes a lot of bourbon to figure out things like that.

I’ve also been confused by another dichotomy, which may be similar: Leftists believe in the use of government to improve people’s lives. They hope to use strong centralized control structures to make society more just and fair. As those who lived under Mao, Hitler, Castro, Mussolini, Stalin, or monsters of a similar stripe will tell you, that type of system generally involves a strong leader using force to control the citizenry. Okay, makes sense. You need a strong leader to control a large, powerful government.

Okay. So who do modern leftists elect to leadership positions? Joe Biden. Kamala Harris. Gavin Newsom. Keir Starmer. Justin Trudeau. Elizabeth Warren. Leftists envision an all-powerful government designed to control the entire world. And then they elect incompetent empty suits to direct the entire enterprise. That seems odd. But I think I may have some idea why they do that, now. See if you agree with me:

Leftists are generally over-educated, underpaid and arrogant – they have advanced degrees and are insulted that they've not been more successful. They want power and wealth without earning it on the open market. They tried to avoid the open market by entering the market of certifications and academic credentials. But it didn't work out for them. So you get AOC and Hitler and Marx, and all the rest of them.

AOC graduated summa cum laude from Boston University but ended up getting a job as a bartender. Hitler was a failed artist rejected from the Vienna Academy of Fine Arts (twice) and had to find work as a day laborer and live in homeless shelters. Karl Marx wanted to be a poet and a playwright. His material didn’t sell, so he lived off the generosity of wealthy friends and he wrote philosophy in which he called for “the forcible overthrow of all existing social conditions.”

These are people who view themselves as geniuses faced with failure for various reasons, and instead of finding other ways to succeed, they simply blame others for their failures.

They’re too talented. Their failures can’t be their fault. Society must be to blame. So it must be destroyed. So we get Robespierre (another failed poet), or somebody like him, who seeks the destruction of the society that he thinks failed him.

So you get weak leftist leaders like Biden and Harris. Why are leftist leaders so weak and incompetent? Because they went into leftist politics because of their inability to succeed, not despite it. And that’s who you get.

So you get leftist violence. They're pissed off. They want to lash out at something. Whether it’s a president they don’t like, or some guy inviting discussion on a college campus – they were wronged, so violence is acceptable. Even admirable. A failed nobody kills an intellectual giant like Charlie Kirk – makes sense to them. Acceptable. Even admirable.

So you get revolution – they hate the system they failed in. They hate capitalism because they went to college and didn't get rich – it failed them – so they adopt a leftist worldview, which blames their failures on other people. PJ O’Rourke once said that one of the most difficult parts of becoming a conservative was finding someone to blame for his problems.

**********

I tell my kids that true wealth is when an extra million dollars wouldn’t change your lifestyle. You have what is important to you. Which means YOU can decide when you are wealthy, by deciding what is important... to YOU. Your definition of wealth is not dependent on other people. And THAT is true independence.

But that’s not how most people see wealth.

Most people tend to view anyone wealthier than them as wealthy. I’m middle class. Of course. My situation is normal. Poor people are those who are poorer than me, and rich people are those who are richer than me, regardless of my financial situation. This is why every politician panders to “the middle class.” Nearly everyone considers themselves a member of that same middle class.

So nearly everyone is prone to the type of resentment and jealousy promoted by leftists. It’s a tempting weakness.

Universities do their part to plant the seeds for the revolution by setting lots of people up for this by selling $300k degrees in sociology. There’s no way that degree will ever pay for itself, even though they got straight As (in meaningless classes). So that person is guaranteed to be bitter and resentful.

Thus, they are guaranteed to vote Democrat for the rest of their lives.

You might view their college degree as a waste of time. Not worth the money. But believe me, Democrats would disagree. That college education is serving the purpose it was designed for.

**********

Who thinks that their talents are not appreciated? That they are not paid what they’re really worth? That they should be wealthier than they are?

Pretty much everybody.

And that is the market that Democrats seek to take advantage of. Pretty much everybody.

Illegal immigration has led a lot of blue-collar workers to lose their jobs. AI is about to cause a lot of white-collar workers to lose their jobs.

That’s pretty much everybody.

The drastic swing of the Democrat party from Hubert Humphrey to open Communists – it’s understandable in this environment.

And any political movement that is based on weakness is susceptible to a sudden takeover by one strong personality. You think Trump has been a disruptive force in the GOP? Imagine an equivalent in the Democrat party.

You won’t have to imagine for long. He’s coming. Or she.

**********

This next presidential election could well be between Marco Rubio (a Floridian of Cuban heritage who has seen leftism and didn’t like it) and AOC (a New Yorker of Puerto Rican heritage who has seen capitalism and didn’t like it). In this environment, AOC has every advantage. It's difficult to see how she could lose. And that's before considering the impact of mail-in ballots.

Rubio’s only hope is the American character of self-reliance and optimism. It's a quality our schools have been trying to extinguish for decades.

Perhaps our national character can overcome our education and indoctrination. Perhaps.

We'll see.

But I'm starting to understand how you go from Joseph Biden to Joseph Stalin. It seems like a big jump. But it's really not.

It's just water, flowing down a hill.

Difficult to stop.

You might slow it down. But it's difficult to stop.