IPA Review has many excellent articles worthy of discussion. The August 2016 issue included Scott Hargreaves critique the idealism of Marxist intellectuals. The headline claims that it revealed the failure of the left wing since the mid twentieth century. The article is a review of Roger Scruton’s “Fools, frauds and firebrands: Thinkers of the New Left.” The major philosophies of the modern left extend from the work of Hegel, whose philosophy is sometimes diminished to be described as ‘Thesis and Anti thesis leads to Synthesis.’ An example of which can be seen in modern sit-com writing where a character that is young might be seen to be falling in love, while in the same story an elderly couple are contemplating divorce. The two opposites combine to synthesise meaning in the story. Hegel’s dialectic (dialectic is a fancy word for discussion) has been adapted by Marx and other leftists to describe the world and anticipate (predict) change. Hence a worker’s revolution after a fight between land owners and workers.

It is true that communism and socialism failed badly after WW2. But it is also true that they failed everywhere in history. Some celebrated left wing philosophers got to live out their dream, but more have lived in nightmares they wrought. Venezuela and Cuba are no more successful now, than the Soviet Union or Cambodia was then. Or revolutionary France failed, but the revolutions of 1848 around Europe failed too. And in the great bastion of commercialism, the United States of America, Neither Bill Clinton, nor Obama have been successful in doing much more than adding to national debt, making the poor worse off and more numerous. The result is that the intellectual heritage of leftwing thinkers is bare. They have nothing underpinning their world view beyond rhetoric. And that makes them very difficult to argue with. But don’t take my word for it, read the article.

Donald Trump's speech at Gettysburg is frightening media. They have supported and protected insider corruption for a long time. Trump will clean up the festering wound, and make America great again.