Contradictions

Progressivism and its contradictions have found a home in the Democrat Party. That's why the Democrats can't find a way out.

In 2019, I joined with a group of parents in Park City to oppose the implementation of an "anti-bullying" program at a local elementary school – even though all three of my kids had long graduated from the school system and matriculated to university. On the surface, the program seemed well-intentioned, but it was part of a broader initiative by the Human Rights Campaign to inject LGBTQ ideology into elementary schools under the guise of combating bullying. The curriculum raised concerns among parents - conservative and progressive alike - who saw it as less about protecting kids and more about promoting a specific social agenda to young, impressionable students who were essentially captives of the classroom.

The resistance we mounted wasn’t without backlash. A sitting city council member penned an opinion piece in the local paper, doubling down on the necessity of the program. The piece didn’t just defend the curriculum; it demanded that residents fully embrace the LGBTQ agenda as a cornerstone of “Park City values.” The message was clear: if you disagreed, you didn’t belong. The council member even suggested that dissenters should reconsider their decision to live in Park City - or perhaps leave altogether. The irony was staggering. Here was a call for inclusion wrapped in a threat of exclusion, a textbook example of preaching one thing while practicing its opposite.

That editorial wasn’t just tone-deaf; it was a glaring illustration of the contradictions baked into progressive ideology. At the time, I thought it was bad, but as the saying goes, “we ain’t seen nothing yet.” The subsequent four years under the Biden administration turned the volume up on this hypocrisy. From policy to rhetoric, the contradictions piled up like a comedy of errors, except it wasn’t funny.

I was raised to believe that any premise contradicting itself is inherently invalid. By that logic, an ideology that can’t follow its own rules is fundamentally flawed. Progressivism, in its modern form, feels like a person standing in a field littered with rakes - every step they take, they trip over their own principles and get whacked in the face.

The Park City saga was a microcosm of this. The rallying cry was inclusion: everyone is welcome, no matter their beliefs. But the fine print read, “Unless you disagree with us, in which case, pack your bags.” It’s like a scene from the Austin Powers movie “Goldmember” where Nigel Powers, Austin’s dad, declares, “There are only two things I can’t stand: people who are intolerant of other cultures, and the Dutch.” It’s absurd, but it captures the essence of the contradiction.

What I didn’t know at the time was, as the old saying goes, “we ain’t seen nothing yet.” Four years of Biden were four straight years of even more contradiction.

Enough to make you want to say, “Daaamn, son. The bar was pretty low, but holy act of fornication!”

This pattern repeats across the progressive landscape, especially within the contemporary Democratic Party. They preach against discrimination but advocate for policies that discriminate to “correct” past wrongs. Diversity becomes a codeword for quotas that exclude certain groups. Inclusivity morphs into shutting out those who don’t conform. Equity means taking from one to give to another, often with little regard for fairness – and perhaps in the greatest of all contradictions, contemporary progressives who claim there are no absolute rules immediately set about creating – and then enforcing - rigid ones. It’s a house of cards built on contradictions.

When an ideology can’t withstand the application of its own principles to itself, it loses legitimacy. Progressivism’s internal inconsistencies don’t just undermine its credibility; they render it unsustainable. The Park City fight was a small battle, but it exposed a larger truth: an ideology that thrives on contradicting itself will eventually collapse under its own weight.