The Lethality of Liberal Ideology

I've just started reading J. R. Dunn's "Death By Liberalism" and he's is making a strong and cogent case that the Liberal Ideology that masquerades these days as liberalism or progressivism, but bears no recognizable link to the Classical Liberalism of the past, is deadly. The misguided initiatives of our anointed elites who imagine they are the epitome of wisdom, in fact have caused the death of millions in the name of a vision that seldom makes any progress towards its stated goals. This is a welcome reading companion to Thomas Sowell's Basic Economics which makes much the same kind of case for liberal blindness in the economic realm.

Dunn begins by drawing parallels with the socialist tyrannies of the 20th century and their misguided savagery which killed tens of millions. Then he progresses to his treatment of the soft tyranny of the Liberal Ideology that emerges from the New Deal, is continued with the Great Society, the War on Poverty and other high sounding but socially destructive programs which bring us to the present.

By page 44 Dunn has shown that liberal policies that are soft on criminals and crime can be credited with the murders of some 263,568 (pg 43) that would not have died over a forty year period between 1964 and 2004 if the criminal justice policies had not been relaxed so that many hardened criminals received a slap on the wrist or extremely light jail sentences so were free in the populate to kill and kill again. This touches me personally since a friend of mine was murdered by an escaped murderer who should have received the death penalty but instead killed four more people including my friend. The book is a fast read and Dunn gives plenty of examples. The data is there. It is just a matter of reading it and not being in denial like so many liberals are.