Confronting Liberalism's Elusive Causes and Effects

The lights came on across Kansas as the sun set on the evening of October 18, 2007 which is, in the minds of most people, just as it should be. It might therefore be easy to conclude that the decision that day of the Kansas Department of Health and Environment to refuse a construction permit for a new coal fired electric power plant was a universally good one, spawning only happiness and positives for everyone, excepting of course those greedy industrialists who wanted to build the plant.

Health and Environment Secretary Roderick Bremby explained that the verdict was based on the "potential for harm to our health and the environment" on the basis that such a project would contribute to "climate change," which is the latest code phrase for "global warming."

Over the years, the people of Kansas, as well as the rest of the country, have come to expect that when they flip the light switch, the darkness flees. When they open the faucet, water comes out. And if, on occasion, such things do not occur as expected, a quick call to the public utilities will fix everything in short order. This is still the case in Kansas. So with each passing day, the notion is bolstered that the judgment of the state government was entirely sound.

Or was it? Can the nation continue to embrace naive and unrealistic ideologies without reaping dire consequences? Forces are in play that threaten to severely and generally degrade the quality of life in America. And these forces, though not as overtly ominous as a crazed clan of turban clad terrorists plotting against America in some distant cave, are no less a danger to the future of the country.

Moreover, often as not they wreak their havoc on a more subtle and scattered basis, and are thus not so immediately obvious as an airliner being flown into a building. Thus, despite the magnitude of the danger they pose, little is done in advance to stop them before their actions bring about the inevitable calamity.

To the people of Kansas, the power grid is fine, since no shortages have yet occurred. Furthermore, with the decision to put environmental consciousness ahead of the mercenary interests of those nasty power companies, Kansans can applaud themselves for being so environmentally aware and friendly. Surely they have done their part to save the planet.

The harsh reality however, is that those who consider the Kansas Department of Health and Environment decision to be a worthy one, and who have determined to ignore the looming fallout from such a decision, are merely playing the same game that the American left has played with America's well-being on numerous fronts, and from which America has, time and again, reaped horrendous consequences.

Consider, in the same light, some other Americans whose lives during the past few weeks have not been nearly so orderly and blissfully uneventful. The horrors visited upon the people of Southern California were, in large part, preventable.

Yet contrary to time-honored wisdom and understanding of the care of forested areas, environmental extremists have been able to thwart efforts to remove dead wood from the forest floors or to thin the trees in a manner that would minimize the potential for such devastating fires.

Like the blissfully ignorant people of Kansas, most Californians supported these misbegotten endeavors at negating man's impact on the environment. And up until last week, they could confidently presume their allegiances to be for the common good.

However, in the wake of the glaring evidence to the contrary, those who are most guilty of contriving the circumstances responsible for the disaster have, in a sense, telegraphed their awareness of guilt.

By screaming the loudest that the fault lies with "global warming," "The War in Iraq," or some such nonsense, they show the world that they are terrified by the possibility that they might be recognized as the real culprits. The louder they scream and point fingers in any other direction, the more they hope to deflect notice from the fact that the ultimate guilt lies with them. And in this effort, they may succeed.

As long as liberal programs can be separated from their consistently disastrous consequences by a sufficient period of time, the perpetrators stand a chance of pointing fingers of accusation at one straw dog or another, thereby escaping culpability for the disasters they helped create.

Thus the abject failures of America's "education" system are blamed not on the "politically correct" agenda of the ultra-liberal National Education Association, but on "insufficient funding." In New Orleans, all of the misery and needless suffering experienced by the people, now bundled in discussion under the heading of "Katrina," resulted not from the corrupt Democrat political machine that misused funds, ignoring the danger and failing to prepare for it, but from the incompetence of President Bush and FEMA.

Of course the most stunning example in recent memory, September 11, is similarly explained away in any manner possible, other than that Bill Clinton and the "girls" (Hillary, Madeleine Albright, Janet Reno, and Jamie Gorelick) chose to play "politically correct" games with national security, thus leaving the nation vulnerable.

Likewise, on the day that Kansas begins experiencing "brownouts," power outages, and the exorbitant costs of shoring up its energy needs by purchasing emergency supplies of electricity from other utilities, those most responsible for the crisis will be the noisiest complainants, ascribing guilt to every corporate interest and individual they can target, but never acknowledging their own complicity.

Nevertheless, until that day arrives, Secretary Bremby and Governor Kathleen Sebelius (a Democrat, of course...) can be expected to loudly extol the virtues of their sensitivity and concern for mother earth.

Not every wrongheaded decision will immediately result in an obvious "day of reckoning" with such horrific, recognizable consequences awakening America with the mesmerizing impact of skyscrapers imploding on thousands of terrified people, or the nightmarish scene of hillsides and entire neighborhoods ablaze. But just as surely, in every situation where liberal ideologues are allowed to set the stage with total disregard for reality, sooner or later that day will come.