Another Pied Piper, It Seems

I don't know what it is about Democrats and the "pied piper" analogy.  But I'm going to try to describe it, because it never stops applying.

Last month I did a piece on the odd way in which followers of Barack Obama slavishly, devotedly follow what he says and tells people to think, even when what he says and tells people to think is contrary to their needs, desires and best interests.

Now, that piece was all about letting 10,000 alleged Syrian immigrants into the USA without knowing who they are, why they're coming and what they might do -- or if they're even Syrian.  But darned if, once again, the analogy bubbles up in regard to slavish followers of a Democrat.

I refer, of course, to Bernie Sanders, the self-described "Democratic socialist" currently giving Hillary Clinton a run for her money.  Well, not her money, actually, you couldn't pry a penny from the Clintons without heavy hydraulic equipment.  No, I mean that he is running neck-and-neck with her in the Democrat popular polls, even though he has essentially not touched the issue of her greatest vulnerability, i.e., that she ran well over a thousand known sensitive/classified documents through a non-secure server.

Although it is crazily early, it is worth noting that Sanders runs ahead, in nationwide polling, of every one of the Republican candidates.  Now, before you ask, I'll tell you that polls like that take as gospel when a respondent describes themselves as a "likely voter."  I'll guarantee you that there are blocs of Democrat voters who aren't showing up if Bernie Sanders is the candidate.

So what, then, are we dealing with?  Well, it's pretty simple -- look at what he is saying in his speeches, and then ask yourself who would be following someone saying such things.  Bernie Sanders is actually saying very few things, and you can recite them as well as I -- public colleges should be tuition-free; Wall Street needs to be functionally destroyed; income inequality is a terrible thing; a 90% top income tax rate is perfectly fine; government will give you X, Y and Z and probably 14 of the remaining 23 letters, and it will be paid for by ... well, borrowing from China, though he doesn't actually say that.

Who in their right mind would believe all of that?  Well, the key is "right mind."  In the only actual Democrat primary to date (New Hampshire), Sanders crushed Hillary, and the only demographic she won was the over-65 female vote. Bernie Sanders was voted for overwhelmingly by the young-voter demographic.

Now, understand this about the "young-voter demographic."  Dave Barry, in the top ten of satirists in the recorded history of mankind, once wrote this: "If you were to open up a baby's head, and I am not for a moment suggesting that you should, you would find nothing but an enormous drool gland." Barry went on to note that as a child grows up, the drool gland gradually congeals into brain matter, until eventually it is an adult with a working brain.

The process, however, is unfortunately gradual.  Some time past the point where the child decides it knows everything and can start explaining things to you (about age four), but before the point when the child realizes that its parents got way, way smarter (after age 30), it passes voting age and is allowed to contribute to the delinquency of the USA.

I say "unfortunately", because up until age 30 or so, there is still a non-zero amount of uncongealed drool gland still in place in the young person's head, masquerading as actual brain.  That's the sort of thing that allows the young unfortunate to follow Pied Pipers like Bernie Sanders, without feeling the necessity to figure out who is supposed to pay for it all (i.e., that you could literally confiscate the wealth of the richest 1% and still not run a Sanders-style government for a year, after which you're out of luck as well as money).

Sadly, what causes immature young adults not to think through the consequences of their decisions will always be true of young adults.  We can't change that.  We can never change that.  What we can do is to shore up the logic of our argument, and dramatically alter the presentation of it, to where a 20-year-old can at least be tempted into thinking that when something has failed before, it is likely to fail again, particularly economic failures like socialism.

We conservatives will likely never have a Pied Piper of our own.  I think it unlikely because conservatism rewards work, preparation, investment, manageable risk, diligence, planning and foresight -- all the things that youth is perpetually looking to avoid, which is why they're so susceptible to Pied Pipers.  They want to be the grasshopper, not the ant, if you will.

Bernie Sanders may or may not carry the day, depending on whether Hillary Clinton is in prison by the convention.  But he will keep piping, and youth will blindly follow.

It's what liberals do, and what socialists do louder.

Copyright 2016 by Robert Sutton
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