THOMAS SOWELL, THE LEFT, AND THEIR DESTRUCTIVE POLICIES

Economist Thomas Sowell, a senior fellow at the Hoover Institute, Stanford University, believes that the Left hurts those it claims to want to help by depriving them of choice and self-determination:

·       For example, under current California law, Hispanic school children cannot be taught in Spanish if their parents want them taught in English. Like parents in other immigrant groups before them, Hispanic parents tend to want their children to learn English, so that those children will have more opportunities when they become adults in an English-speaking country. But the Left in general, and Hispanic activists in particular, have fought against leaving Hispanic parents with that choice.

In essence, the Left is convinced that it is they who know better:

·       At the heart of the Left’s vision of the world — and of themselves — is that they know better what is good for other people. This means that the Left sees itself as having both a right and a duty to take away other people’s options.

Even after the people of California voted against this initiative, the Left reintroduced it under Proposition 58.

Sowell has experienced this “I know what’s better for you” attitude in many ways:

·       Many years ago, in a debate on William F. Buckley’s program Firing Line, I was told by a left-wing lawyer that black parents without a good education themselves could not make wise choices for their children’s education. But hard evidence says otherwise. There are whole chains of charter schools, such as the KIPP (Knowledge Is Power Program) schools and the Success Academy schools, where ghetto kids have academic achievements equal to those of children in affluent suburbs — and sometimes higher achievements…Black parents who enroll their children in charter schools have apparently made better choices than the know-it-alls on the left.

Sowell claims that the “I know best” Left has also hurt in marginalized by denigrating law-enforcement:

·       When it comes to crime and violence, the political Left, including much of the media, are having a great time demonizing the police. Blacks are the biggest victims of the sharp upturn in murders that has followed. But, yet again, hard evidence carries very little weight when the Left is feeling good about themselves, while leaving havoc in their wake. The absurdity to which this kind of media frenzy about the police can lead is shown by the fact that a black policeman in Charlotte, North Carolina, shooting a black suspect who had a gun, has been blown up into a racial issue across the nation. Have we become so gullible that we are so easily manipulated and stampeded? http://www.nationalreview.com/article/441176/california-ballot-proposition-58-shows-left-taking-school-choices-away-parents

The West has honed manipulation into a fine art among by promoting the victimization theme. Instead of helping the marginalized, the Left has inflamed them, making it harder for the marginalized to stand together along with their neighbors.