Bill Barr Unloads a Wild Theory About Progressive Politics

The attorney general thinks progressivism leads to freeloading, which leads to…despotism?

Shane T. Mccoy/Zuma

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To Attorney General Bill Barr, a large percentage of the American electorate amounts to nothing more than “25-year-olds living in the government’s basement, focusing [their] energies on obtaining a larger allowance rather than getting a job and moving out.”

The chief law enforcement officer of the United States railed against progressives in a speech to the National Religious Broadcasters Convention on Wednesday, calling liberals “militant and totalitarian.” “While they seek power through the democratic process,” he said, “their policy agenda has become more aggressively collectivist, socialist, and explicitly revolutionary.”

The comment is reminiscent of former Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney’s 2012 remarks that 47 percent of Americans have a sense of entitlement, are “dependent upon government,” and “believe that they are victims.” But Barr’s statements go even further.

Barr went on to quote Alexis de Tocqueville, who feared that American democracy would allow people to rely on the state to take care of them—a common but misguided belief about social welfare in general. Barr then made the tenuous logical leap that dependence on the government is a sort of despotism in its own right.

“It would be totalitarianism beneath a veneer of democratic choice,” he said.

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“Lying.” “Disgusting.” “Scum.” “Slime.” “Corrupt.” “Enemy of the people.” Donald Trump has always made clear what he thinks of journalists. And it’s plain now that his administration intends to do everything it can to stop journalists from reporting things they don’t like—which is most things that are true.

No one gets to tell Mother Jones what to publish or not publish, because no one owns our fiercely independent newsroom. But that also means we need to directly raise the resources it takes to keep our journalism alive. There’s only one way for that to happen, and it’s readers like you stepping up. Please help with a donation today if you can—even a few bucks will make a real difference. A monthly gift would be incredible.

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