The Suicide of the West by Jonah Goldberg used the metaphor of the golden goose to describe political movements.

Some thought the one golden egg a day was not enough and demanded more.  They abused the goose to get more eggs. The goose eventually died.

The technocrat thought they could design a better goose, so they dissected the goose, also destroying him, and were unable to produce a better golden egg laying mechanism.

The bureaucrat and the economist thought they could incentivize the goose to lay more eggs, but the goose became more focused on the incentives and the distraction confused the goose and he produced half the eggs.  (this analogy is mine)

The conservative was grateful for the eggs the goose produced and worked to protect and care for the goose.  He studied the goose to be sure he was housed properly at the right temperature, fed the correct amount of the right kind of food, and was properly treated when an illness occurred.

Deirdre McCloskey wrote extensively on the dramatic improvement of mankind in the last 250 years.  This 70-fold improvement in the betterment of mankind is absolutely unprecedented in human history.  Hans Rosling’s recent Factfulness documents more specifically the many dramatic improvements worldwide and how our more educated are oblivious to this progress.

Goldberg believes this development was not the result of natural human development but the containment of man’s darker nature by critical institutions.  The Constitution was the result of an exceptional group of men, erudite in human history, designing a document that sought to maximize the benefits of human freedom while curtailing the abuses of power from both an unrestrained government and from the passions of the people.  They were aware of the tyranny of the majority as much as the tyranny of the elite or the aristocracy. Despotism could come from democracy as easily as from monarchy.

The assault on these institutions and the serious threat they posed to the Miracle was the motivation for Jonah’s book.  These institutions were under full frontal assault in the Kavanaugh hearing.  In desperation to preserve their most cherished right they dropped all pretenses of loyalty to the institutions that protect all of our rights.  They are willing to sacrifice due process and the presumption of innocence to even the smallest threat to Roe v Wade.

This is identity politics gone nuclear.  Identity politics has been exclusionary; the elevation of identity means marginalizing others, mostly white males, even to the extent of denying them constitutional protection.  Identity politics requires the suspension of individual rights to group punishment.  A woman is to be believed because she is a woman.  A man is to be silenced because he is a man.

Events like the Kavanaugh hearing serve to clarify the fundamental political differences. That is why they are so contested.

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