Many years ago, an economics professor whose class I took as an undergraduate admonished his students not to be "shouldists."  By that he meant one must strive to recognize reality, not what you think the world "should" be.

    Of course, there are caveats to this principle.  Had William Wilberforce not envisioned the end of slavery in the British Empire, or the world as it "should" be in a moral sense, slavery would not have been outlawed there in 1833.  If his vision had not borne fruit after decades of hard work in the face of devils and men, the subsequent rise of Darwinism, which excuses racial discrimination on the basis of perceived evolutionary superiority, might have ensured the existence of slavery for centuries.

    My economics professor was referring to the lens through which a person views the world.  Liberals and conservatives in today's political climate view the world very differently.  For example, a teen-aged male of color holds up a convenience store, shooting the proprietor and escaping with a few hundred dollars and a carton of cigarettes.  Conservatives view that as a criminal act and call for a trial, conviction, and years of prison.  Liberals are prone to excuse the perpetrator because he experienced a fatherless home, the rigors of a ghetto upbringing, dismissal from school after the ninth grade due to non-performance and the resulting negative effect upon his employment opportunities, and inbred racial prejudice in American society.

    Dr. Lyle H. Rossiter, Jr., a forensic psychologist, offers a fascinating look into the worldview of a liberal in his new book, "The Liberal Mind: The Psychological Causes of Political Madness."  I highly recommend it.

    In this wonderfully comprehensive book, Dr. Rossiter explains that liberals reveal their true character in what they hold to be valuable.  They live in a world filled with pity, sorrow, neediness, mistrust, and accusation.  The objects of their emotional swamp are those whom they view as true perpetrators: heartless conservatives, Big Oil, Big CEO's, capitalist greed (i.e. the pursuit of that loathsome word, "profit"), American imperialists, oppressors, the rich, the powerful, and Christian fundamentalists.  Those whose lives are negatively affected by this motley lot are workers, minorities, women, the little guy, the poor, the weak, the unemployed, the sick, the wronged, the cheated, the exploited, those discriminated against, the disenfranchised, those experiencing racial prejudice, and victims of every stripe.  Such people, in the liberal's view, are not to be held accountable for lashing out at the horrible injustice heaped upon them by a system which only exists to take advantage of them.  Instead, they are to be pitied, accommodated, spared, and given special privilege wherever possible.

    Concomitant with this worldview are the concepts the liberal mind does NOT hold as valuable.  These include the idea that the individual is not the ultimate economic, social, and political unit (Government, properly capitalized so as to inspire reverence, occupies this position).  The liberal mind does not respect individual liberty and a system of law and order which ensures it.  It views private property as merely transitory until Government needs it.  It views contracts as "evolving" depending upon the needs of the moment.  This mindset does not preach an ethic of self-reliance, industry, accomplishment, or accountability.  It does not value self-restraint, adherence to sexual abstinence until marriage and fidelity thereafter, or genuine altruism exemplified by charity.  Perhaps most egregious, it does not learn the lessons of history that teach that such thinking, such worship of collectivism and Government, has lead only to disaster wherever it was practiced.  

    The liberal mind holds that this life is all there is.  On occasion they may profess faith in a traditional Christian denomination, but such profession is always negated by their failure to practice or even honor the moral principles of the faith.  One or more may make a public display of adherence to a mystical spiritism such as The Universal Consciousness or Buddhism or Shinto, but they are invariably annoyed when asked to verify such faith with any measure of proof.  In so doing, they demonstrate that such adherence is a sham, and that their true god can be found in the mirror--right here, right now, not in some afterlife.  That is why liberals revere Government.  If this life is all there is, you line up with the forces which can offer you access to the best this world has to offer, and that means control over the lives, fortunes, and behavior of others for your own enrichment.  Proof positive of this is the number of very wealthy liberals in Congress.  They moan over the plight of the (see above list of victims), propose bills to enable Government to extract more taxes from the oppressor class in order to mollify said victims, and then jump in their chauffeured limousines for lobster in Boston.

    Dr. Rossiter holds, rightfully in my opinion, that such a mindset is not the result of sloppy fact-gathering.  On the contrary, liberals typically don't care to deal in facts.  Take the fact, for example, that in the American system of government U.S. attorneys serve exclusively at the pleasure of the President of the United States.  That's the law.  Combine this with the fact that one of Bill Clinton's first acts after assuming office in 1993 was to fire all 93 U.S. attorneys without cause.  He could...he was the President.  Yet when President Bush's Attorney General fires eight U.S. attorneys for non-performance, the liberal voices in Congress act as though he had committed the most awful act ever perpetrated in this nation.  Facts are irrelevant to liberals; they tend to get in the way of their opinions.

    On the contrary, says Dr. Rossiter, the liberal mindset is a form of psychopathology.  In ignoring basic common sense, logical sequences, normal reasoning, and cause-and-effect analysis, liberals display a mental illness.  So extravagant are the excesses of the liberal mind that they can only be diagnosed by trained psychologists--and rational conservatives--as a disorder of the psyche, as clinically disturbed personalities.

    Think about it.  What else but a mental illness could motivate someone to champion the murder of a baby in the womb at any stage of life?  What else could explain someone calling for Government to rescue a victim of oppressors by endorsing denial of personal responsibility, calls for pity, and sexual indulgence of every sort with people or animals of any age or gender?  What other mindset celebrates violence in pursuit of personal goals, dismissal of financial obligations, rudeness, profanity, pornography, complaining and blaming?  

     The liberal mental illness induces politicians to act as the hero in the life drama of ensuring everyone's material welfare, health care, self-esteem, destruction of prejudicial obstacles, and elimination of all class distinctions.  The mechanism by which they attempt to create these superhuman feats--which deny all actual differences that humans display (some are taller, smarter, stronger, etc.) are multiple entitlements to unearned goods, services, and social band-aids.

    Of course, the life drama in which the liberal politician stars in his/her own mind uses only Monopoly money.  Politicians don't create any wealth; they merely transfer wealth from those whom they consider oppressors to those whom they consider victims, thus ensuring the future votes of the victims and a lifetime role as star of the drama.

    Such a mindset is continually in pursuit of a Marxist utopia, where, as Jacques Barzun describes it, "everyone should be safe and at ease in a hundred ways."  That world does not exist in reality.  Non-shouldists realize that there is indeed strife, inequality, discrimination, and unfairness in life.  But we also know that there is opportunity.  Mentally deranged liberals and their happily sponsored victim-receivers will never comprehend that fundamental truth.  Hence the battle--and the need for conservatives to identify non-shouldists and vote, vote, vote for them.