Is that it works. Period.

The historical record of the last 30 years proves it. When liberals are in charge, things get better. When conservatives rule, things get worse.

And we are not just talking better for the poor or the immigrants or the gays. We are talking better for the very things which conservatives consider to be their own.

Under liberals, deficits shrink. The economy grows. Business (big and small) thrives. Wall Street prosper. The Dow Jones breaks all previous records. Ask any conservative what they care about most in terms of money, and you will find that liberals are better at actually delivering it.

Because liberalism works. Conservatism doesn’t. It’s just that simple.

Conservatives cling to the notion that they are somehow the guardians of real civilization against the forces of anarchy, but the truth is that modern society is based on liberal values and hence does best under a leadership in line with said values.

The entirety of modern history has been written by liberals and radicals. Everything we think of as progress, whether that progress is economic, social, or technological, has come from some liberal fighting off the forces of reactionary conservatism that mindless protect the status quo not because they actually think it is the best we can do, but because they simply fear change. They fear the unknown.

And that is the opposite of liberalism.

Modernity has liberalism in its DNA at a fundamental level. Liberal values like education, science, and innovation are backbones of the economy. The causes of tolerance, understanding, and acceptance have done nothing but advance since the modern era began.

The conservatives never, ever, ever win. Think about that. They always lose. In the end, they stop absolutely nothing. Change happens, the ground shifts beneath their feet, and they are dragged by their heels into the future by the unstoppable march of human progress.

This does not happen automatically, of course. It happens because most people do not think of themselves as mean or irrational people and hence the kinder and more rational options inevitably win out. And that, in turn, only happens because the liberals who are the forerunners of all progress work tirelessly to refine and spread their message.

The conservatives can scream and shout and stomp their feet and hold their breath until they turn blue all they want just like the spoiled and petty children they really are, but the adults of liberalism will always win out over time.

And the progress made by those liberals will be taken as a given by the next generation of conservatives, who will fight some new and equally senseless battle to keep the next wave of positive change from happening without even acknowledging how much they owe to the liberals of the past.

We are seeing one of those waves of change happening right now. Gay marriage is coming to state after state and country after country. Tolerance of the GLBT community is at an all time high and just keeps rising. The oppression of any harmless minority is against the fundamental principles of justice and tolerance that are the very foundations of modern society, not just in word but in practice.

Everyone in modern society benefits from the sweat and toil of liberals of the past. The forty hour work week, tolerance of religious and racial differences, the technology that liberal scientific innovation has brought to the world and saved billions of lives and untold human suffering… we are all swimming in waters purified by liberalism, and that process will continue far into the future.

The folly of conservatism, then, is the inability to see how things actually work because their tiny minds, shriveled souls, and cold hard hearts cannot handle the idea that being nice actually makes things better for everyone. Even them.

Their regressive minds have devolved into those of selfish children who scream NO at the slightest provocation and who can’t imagine there being any good reason why anyone else should ever tell them they can’t do what they want to do and can’t have everything they want to have.

And when they rail against change, it is with the same unreasonable and unreasonable stubborn determination of a child throwing a temper tantrum because the family is going to move to a bigger, better house, or because they were made to go to the dentist when they didn’t want to do it.

It doesn’t matter what is right or wrong. They are frankly incapable of making that determination. The variables are too complex for their weakened state of reason. All that matters is what is familiar and comforting instead of new and frightening.

It is a purely emotional reaction, which is why it cannot be reasoned with. Things which are not the product of reason cannot be changed by reason.

A conservative is a fundamentally unreasonable person.

Luckily for human freedom and progress, they are also a minority, and a shrinking one at that. As the world urbanizes, the rural base which provides the bulk of conservatism’s able-bodied working supporters is dwindling, leaving only the old people who have lost not just their mental but their moral faculties.

Hopefully, this means that human progress will proceed just a little more smoothly in the future, without the millstone of cranky conservatives needlessly delaying popular change.

And who knows. Maybe we do need conservatives around in order to keep things from changing too fast and too soon. As I age I find that increasingly hard to see, but I can’t eliminate the possibility.

But this modern world of ours is a liberal world. It was founded by liberals, it was built by liberals, and it works best under liberal leadership.

The Europeans understand this. They have grasped that caring, considerate, tolerant societies thrive on all levels, not just the ethical.

But we here in North America seem to have missed that particular update.

Reagrdless, liberalism will always triumph because it is the right thing to do and the most effective way to satisfy even our most selfish and greedy desires.

Because it just. Plain. WORKS.