If We Want To Be Like Denmark We Need a NEW New Deal.

“There are more things in Heaven and Earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy.”
― William Shakespeare, Hamlet

“One may smile, and smile, and be a villain. ” ― William Shakespeare, Hamlet

I award this week’s Captain Obvious award to Peggy Noonan for this astute observation:

The 2008 Democratic contest was a rush to the center, with both leading Democrats, Mrs. Clinton and Barack Obama, trying to show they were moderates at heart. The 2016 primary is a rush to the left. We are now not embarrassed to argue America should be more like Denmark. – WSJ

Sadly for our progressive friends however, something is rotten in the state of Denmark. As Kevin Williamson over at NR has been explaining for a long time, even Denmark doesn’t want to be like Denmark any more. 

So while Bernie wants to turn us into Denmark, Hillary just wants to turn us into pre-WWII America. That’s right: Hillary declared we need a NEW New Deal. At least she’s officially acknowledging that America is in worse shape after 7 years of Obamanomics than it was during the great recession.

“God hath given you one face, and you make yourself another.” ― William Shakespeare, Hamlet

Jonah Goldberg, in “New Deals for as Far as the Eye Can See,” explains that Democrats have been lobbying for a New New Deal ever since the original under-performing model was introduced.

You can explain all day how the New Deal prolonged the Great Depression and they won’t care. They’re like our new canine visitor Pippa, who apparently thinks every moment is the best moment for a New Throw of the tennis ball.. After 9/11 Chuck Schumer raced to the pages of the Washington Post to explain that terrorism requires a new New Deal. After Katrina, liberals said “Aha! This proves we need a new New Deal.” Thomas Friedman has a shortcut macro on his keyboard that allows him to vomit up a column arguing that pretty much everything (but especially climate change!) requires, nay demands, a new New Deal.

They don’t always use the phrase “new New Deal.” Often, they use the hackneyed language of the “moral equivalent of war” instead (see this latest installment at The Atlantic of this ancient trope). But, as I’ve written 8 trillion times, that’s the same frickin’ argument.

And, as you’ve suspected all along, it isn’t really so much about you as it is about them:

The real appeal of the New Deal wasn’t its alleged success, it’s that the New Deal is synonymous with a time when progressives had nearly unfettered political power to do what they wanted. Liberals don’t really worship the New Deal, they worship themselves. The New Deal is just a talisman in their undying faith in their own ability to guide society and make decisions for others better than people can make for themselves.

I’m sure we can all empathize with Jonah’s exhaustion:

It’s all just so exhausting. And I guess what I resent most of all is the fact that I will spend the rest of my life arguing with people who not only think that their faith in progressivism and the State is smart and modern, but that their opponents are the ones who are stuck in the past. And in the process, they’ll keep making the country worse, with every failure providing the latest evidence that now, now, is the time for a new New Deal.

“Though this be madness, yet there is method in’t.” ― William Shakespeare, Hamlet