Mankind has always been corrupt. We are, by nature, fallen creatures for whom doing the right thing will always be more difficult than taking the path of least resistance. Yet such difficulty is exponentially compounded by a progressive ideology that constantly encourages people to abandon character for comfort and worry about the moral ramifications after the fact. It is compounded by the siren song of perpetual victimhood that relieves the individual of personal responsibility and personal ambition. It is compounded by playing one group of people off another, without regard to individual achievement—or a lack thereof. It is not hard for people to be seduced by "we will take care of you," or maybe even more accurately, "we will do your thinking for you," once the moral component of the seduction has been calculatingly obscured.
Bottom line: A predominantly moral populace has little need for expansive government—and progressives know it. That is precisely why one of their principal targets is religion and their ongoing determination to remove it from the public square whenever and wherever possible. The codified morality religion represents is the ultimate distraction away from the progressive agenda—which is why it must also be belittled as well.
Yet the main battleground for the progressive movement is public school education. Does anyone seriously think those who champion an ever-expanding state want people being educated to think for themselves? What constitutes better clay for shaping than a semi- educated populace indoctrinated to believe, not only that the world owes them something for nothing, but that such a concept is morally justifiable?
Thus, it is no accident that the emphasis in public school education has gone from teaching kids how to think to teaching them what to feel. Nor is it coincidental that educational establishment dominated by progressives has made a student's self-esteem more important than his command of the facts. People focused on emotional self-gratification are far more pliable than those capable of independent reasoning. Progressives understand that substantial numbers of Americans taught to believe a debate on the issues can be "won" by calling someone a name, is a critical component of their power base.
