The rhetoric of leftism has wide appeal because to adopt and echo it is to make oneself feel kind, caring, and generous. It matters not whether the policies that flow from leftist rhetoric actually make others better off. The important things, to a leftist, are how he feels about himself and how others perceive him.
It is easy for a leftist to seem kinder, more caring, and more generous than a conservative because a leftist focuses on intentions rather than consequences. No matter that the consequences of leftist dogma could match their stated intentions only if Santa Claus or the Tooth Fairy ruled the world.
In the leftist’s imagination, of course, government is Santa Claus and the Tooth Fairy. Government, despite the fact that it consists of venal and fallible humans, somehow (in the leftist’s imagination) wields powers that enable it to make “good” things happen with the stroke of a pen and at no cost. Well, at no cost to anyone who matters to a leftist, which rules out most hard-working taxpayers.
It follows that a leftist wants government to dictate (to others) the terms and conditions of human striving — what is made, how it is made, whether it is made, how much of it is made, and to whom it should be distributed. Such dictatorship has failed in many places because it omits economic facts of life: the variety of tastes and preferences, the benefits of competition, the importance of the profit incentive, and the beneficial inventions and innovations that are spurred by the foregoing.
Economic reality is of no consequence to a leftist. For him, human progress is attained by the magical powers of government, which can raise up the impoverished, cure the stricken, and banish strife from the land. It is up to government to do such things because, in the view of a leftist, nothing that happens to anyone who is on the left’s list of favored groups is that person’s fault. It is the fault of “society” or the uncaring, unkind, ungenerous exploiters who (in the left’s imagination) control society. The ultimate irony is that the uncaring, unkind, and ungenerous exploiters are the leftists who strive to write the rules by which mere mortals live.
In sum, the true nature of leftism is a blend of Utopianism and power-lust. Thus, in the left’s view of things, human wants can be met, but only without mussing the face of the Earth; people can live and work wherever they choose, as long as it is in compact cities in which government owns the only means of transportation; people can say what they want and associate with whom they please, as long as they say nothing to offend certain kinds of persons and are forced to associate with them, like it or not. (The list goes on, but that is more than enough to make my point.)
The idea of allowing individuals to make their own way (and sometimes to fail in the process of trying), to become sick and die because of the “lifestyles” they prefer, and to avoid one another (usually for very good reasons) is beyond the ken of the leftist. Imperfection — in the mind of a leftist — is impermissible, as long as the imperfect are favored by the left. Individuals must not be allowed to fail, to become ill, or to harbor ill feelings, except toward the enemies of leftism. The antidote to failure is to arrange our lives and business affairs as the leftist would like to see them arranged. All in the name of kindness, compassion, and generosity, of course.
In addition to their ability to believe and proclaim impossible and contradictory things, leftists have the advantage of being ruthless. They pull no punches; they project their proclivities onto their opponents; they skirt the law — and violate it — to get what they want; they use the law and the media to go after their ideological opponents; and on and on.
Why such ruthlessness? Leftists want to rearrange the world to fit their idea of perfection. They have it all figured out, and dissent from the master plan will not be tolerated. Their models aren’t Madison and Jefferson but Hitler and Stalin.
Conservatives, by contrast, simply want people to figure out for themselves how to arrange their private corner of the world within the roomy confines of traditional morality (don’t cheat, don’t steal, don’t murder, etc.) and with respect for the (moral) beliefs and (morally acquired) earnings and property of others. But that kind of quaint arrangement doesn’t have the public-relations appeal of the left’s never-ending search for “social justice” and its dispensation by Santa Claus and the Tooth Fairy.
It’s easy to see why the left slowly but surely has accrued power, changed the legal and moral landscape, and move “mainstream” thinking leftward: Its rhetoric and (false) promises are more appealing to the gullible and to those who believe in “free lunches” — which is probably a majority of mankind. Add ruthlessness to the mixture and it’s surprising that America didn’t long ago become a clone of the USSR, Cuba, and similar dictatorships.
The fact that America remains relatively free (though losing ground fast) is a testament to the moral courage of some American politicians (whose numbers seem to be dwindling) and the moral character of a large (but shrinking) percentage of Americans.