Progressives: Paul Ryan is the Devil

Over at the the Huffington Post, George Lakoff's Romney, Ryan and The Devil's Budget has jumped the shark with a jet pack. Once again progressives sink to fear, misinformation and vilification. Here are a few excerpts: 

The government's job was to carry out that moral vision and to do so it created what we call The Public, the provision of basic protection and empowerment for all.

Where is that in the Constitution? Morality is the job of government.

The Government is not "The Public" the two entities are separate. We The People approved The Constitution and all laws must flow from that as it is the only law approved directly by the people in US history. It enumerates the powers of The Government and all other powers assumed by The Government are taken at the expense of the states and of the people (The New Deal, etc..). These added powers are not moral. These powers were given to the states and the people because central government is not capable of morality. It is not capable of fulfilling these duties.

Budgets are moral documents. National, state, and local budgets are commitments about where and how to carry out the work of America's soul, or to abandon it. A national budget that abandons the Public and the freedoms it gives us is selling America's very soul. Such a budget is the Devil's Budget. It uses numbers for an evil purpose: to rob us of our basic everyday freedom.

"Budgets are moral documents." So Democrats failure to pass a budget for several years indicates their lack of morals? Does that mean that Barack Obama's zero vote budgets indicate that his morals are completely out of step with the American people?

Second, who would propose a Devil's Budget? Paul Ryan. Who wants to put it in effect? Mitt Romney.

The Devil is seductive. He is handsome, strong, charming, sincere, engages you in gentlemanly and respectful debate. He says he is on your side, that you are in a crisis. He offers to solve your crisis and makes it sound good. 

Did George proof read this?

The money is there. America is richer than she has ever been.

Laughable.

Those who advocate for such a budget may not be individually evil. That is an independent issue. Demonizing others is its own kind of evil, and we do not apply the name to Romney, Ryan or others. Perhaps many who advocate a Devil's Budget know not what they do.

...

Let's take "a while" to be until 2050. Derek Thompson, in TheAtlantic.com on March 21, 2012, surveyed The Congressional Budget Office's projection of the Ryan budget estimates to 2050. Defense spending would be kept relatively constant, while what the government has left would be "0.75 percent of GDP - about 100 billion for everything besides defense that the government does." 

Government is a godless god and the worship of it leads to misery. The proof is in the deficits. No matter how you slice it, entitlement deficits create a situation where only interest on the debt can be paid and all other government services are eventually cut off.  Government growth leads to the destruction of the nation. It "collapses the system," as progressives know all to well.

This article points out that the Ryan budget saves the military, as it is one of the few constitutional duties of the federal government. It is a step in the right direction. However, the article fails to identify why this is the situation we face. 

Thank goodness grown-ups will be in charge again after November.  

But wait, it gets better... Lakoff then demonizes the majority of Americans and of course Paul Ryan is the Devil.

The biggest lie is that there is, or should be, no Public. The biggest lie is that Democracy is about personal freedom alone, about the "liberty" to seek your own interests with no responsibility for the interests or well-being of your fellow citizens. The biggest lie is a moral lie.

The idea of American Individualism is a moral lie. There can be no Individualism without The Public. Individualism can only begin where The Public leaves off. Individualism begins after the roads are built, after individualists have had an education, after medical research has cured their diseases, after the individualists have received from The Public land grants, grazing, water, and mineral leases, oil and agriculture subsidies, after they have received crucial patents.

Are individualists willful liars? We doubt it. To lie, you have to know that you are lying and intending to deceive. ... And there is a reason for this blindness that follows from the way brains work.

You think with your brain; all thoughts are physical, a matter of the activation of brain circuits called "frames." Everything you understand uses frame-circuits that structure how you think. Without the right frame-circuits, there are facts you just will not be able to make sense of. The frames come in hierarchies, with moral frames at the top. With an extreme conservative morality, you will have an Individualism frame governing your political and economic frames. The fact that real individual achievements depend on what The Public provides to give them their start and help them along will not be comprehensible to extreme conservatives. Why? Because they do not have the American moral frame that requires both personal and social responsibility; the conservative moral frame has only personal responsibility, and the closest thing to social responsibility is imposing personal responsibility alone maximally in every area of life.

More "You didn't build that" and if you think you did, you must be an idiot or liar. "The idea of American Individualism is a moral lie. There can be no Individualism without The Public." This is laughable, academic nonsense from the perspective of reliance upon others to assign grades, merit and accolades. My rights as an individual do not depend upon government and they were not granted by government. At best, government is established to secure my individualism.

Paul Ryan is a personable individualist and extreme conservative. And he is smart -- seen as an intellectual by his conservative colleagues because has mastered budget policy enough to construct a Devil's Budget with all the right numbers. Not the right numbers to eliminate the deficit, as Paul Krugman has observed. But the right numbers to eliminate The Public, which is the real conservative goal.

Continue to make the case that progressives want to be "good" masters, but masters.  This is the wrong country for that nonsense. Continue to vilify honest, educated, moral people. Continue to believe everyone who disagrees with you is unenlightened, idiotic, uneducated or "Evil." Individualist Americans understand the consequences of these words when put into policy. George Lakoff continues to make the case that progressives should never again be in charge of a nation of men. 

This progressive article must have been written for the unthinking zombie horde.

Hat tip: Karin Summerford