The Road to Hell Isn’t Paved with Good Intentions. It’s Paved with Deep Feelings.
By David Bittinger
October 2nd, 2026
Feelings are valued, they’re celebrated, more than rational thought is. People with deeply emotional political feelings are certain they have winning arguments. Let’s engage them.
You hate Trump so, so much? Well, that settles it.
And you feel that criminals shouldn’t languish behind bars, even after committing two or however many crimes? Oh, your feelings reflect true justice.
In your heart, you believe that about 15 million people (twice the population of New Jersey) living in the U.S. illegally deserve sanctuaries from immigration enforcement, ones defended by street protestors. . . and they should be given benefits not available to American citizens . . . and their criminal history shouldn’t be held against them? Golly, your kind heart has won the day!
A political approach based on feelings tends to be antithetical to one based on thought. Everywhere from New York dinner parties to Minneapolis streets to California faculty lounges, the feelings approach wages a weepy war to redefine American government.
They’re demanding more now: more apologies, more influence, more guaranteed income. They feel the need for nothing less than a new type of government.
You might have heard of one episode in the founding of American government. It occurred in a brief 1787 exchange between Philadelphian Elizabeth Powel, then the country’s most politically influential woman, and Benjamin Franklin, a Pennsylvania delegate to the Constitutional Convention. Powel asked Franklin whether the delegates to the convention were giving the country a monarchy or a republic. Franklin’s cautionary reply became famous: “A republic, if you can keep it.”
In today’s terms, Franklin’s “keep it” bequest could be deemed at-risk. The feelings crowd is now pushing for a socialist republic, which of course would soon become all socialist, no republic. Through angry performances on streets and campuses, they’re campaigning for reverting the American republic that has survived for 239 years to a Russian model that collapsed after just 74 years.
“Progressives” call this progress.
Democrats, Democratic Socialists, and closet Marxists love the feelings-vs-thoughts debate because their partner media always declare the feelings are winning it. Those of us on the other side can only use reasoned thought and language to fight the battle. And while doing so, we’re characterized as coldly intellectual or just plain mean.
Here’s a realistic way to understand this battle. Forget party labels; it’s actually about capitalism versus socialism. Though socialism is fatally flawed and a serial historical disaster, it can never be killed. It’s the Freddy Krueger of utopian dreamers.
Have you ever tried to defend capitalism, especially to a Felicia Feelings-type leftist? Capitalism is actually a tough case to make to meager intellects, especially in an era when critical reading is overwhelmed by critical TV viewing.
Leftists have come to see capitalism as a relic of the nineteenth century, a scheme still run by an evil consortium. The well-read few among them attribute capitalism’s creation to ruthless corporate barons like Andrew Carnegie, John D. Rockefeller, and some railroad tycoons. The larger number whose reading list leans toward holiday fables think of capitalism as the product of America’s Ebeneezer Scrooges.
And they maintain a rosy view of socialism by ignoring twentieth century history. Pay no attention to those socialist regimes behind the curtain, Dororthy!
The regimes are all failures. The big one, the failed empire, was the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. The Western Hemisphere model is Fidel’s socialist revolution in Cuba, still working on making that revolution airtight and still delaying the free elections he promised in 1960.
Then there was Venezuela. Pity the voters who in 1999 thought Hugo Chavez’ socialist “economic justice” would enrich them. In 2016, they began seeking protein justice by stealing zoo animals. Buen provencho!
The efficient complex of capitalism is today represented in simple images, the establishment favorite being greedy, scowling businessmen. How many TV programs and movies have you seen that portray business characters favorably? Villainous business storylines outnumber pro-business storylines by at least four-to-one. though the margin seems larger than that, especially in big productions.
Greedy corporate executives and sinister investors provide archetypal fiends. They’re popular villains among the audience of arrested-development adults who find heroes in comic book figures. A capitalist monster movie won an Academy Award for Michael Douglas for his portrayal of Wall Street baddie Gordon Gekko.
You’d think that a big-budget movie would be made about globe-conquering currency manipulator George Soros, “the man who broke the Bank of England.” In character and behavior, he resembles a villain in a James Bond movie. He could be Dr. No No-Bail.
But leftist media mostly ignore Soros or cast him as just a kindly billionaire who taps into his fortune to elect Democrat prosecutors and judges with a compassionate style of law enforcement. That prosecution laxity is approved by city voters who’ve never been mugged.
And how have deep-feeling politicians been evaluated by the deep-feelings media? Special care had to be taken with one political lifer.
That doddering fellow was shown poignant appreciation by the newspaper of record. Endorsing Joe Biden in the 2020 election, The New York Times cooed “time and loss have softened his edges.” It observed that Biden “speaks the language of suffering and compassion with a raw intimacy, making deep emotional connections across lines of race and class.” Columnist Jamelle Bouie remarked that the Democrats’ convention framed Biden as a leader “who seeks to provide and protect, while also showing empathy.”
After Joe’s election, the Times hailed Biden’s victory with “the people have chosen empathy.”
Can you hear the soundtrack behind the Times’ screenplay there? It’s a thousand surging strings, a Barry Manilow symphony.
As the Biden basement era progressed and America’s population boomed through its southern border, empathy remained a major priority. CNN described Biden as a leader who is “all empathy, wearing his heart on his sleeve.” As the network’s viewership kept declining, the remaining couch dwellers heard the president reassuringly described as the “comforter-in-chief.”
Do you need a hankie? Maybe an airsickness bag? Let’s move on with feeling to his hyper-emotive would-be successor.
Following her democratic anointing, Kamala’s presidential campaign focused significantly on the subject of “joy,” proposing increases in national joyfulness, and being championed by Joy Reid (the most hatred-oriented comedian ever).
And Kamala’s speeches featured one memorable statement of her belief in several joyous variations. Here’s a montage of her most famous statement.
And recall Kamala’s VP running mate Tim Walz — quickly, before he disappears into a think tank that discourages thinking. (He’s still somehow the Governor of Minnesota.) Walz entered 2024 presidential campaign rallies waving his hands like a giddy cheerleader. Equally disturbing, he was apparently managing his state’s 10-figure — possibly 11-figure — fraud by immigrant Somali entrepreneurs the same way: by happily waving his hands.
Walz at a 2024 Vice-Presidential debate: “Donald Trump makes the people I care about afraid.” Now, that is emotion-only politics. The relevant point isn’t just what saps in Minnesota feel; it’s what Governor Walz feels about their feelings.
A triumphantly successful politician can even feel deeply about the hard facts of economics. Then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi had those feelings of empathy for ordinary Americans (folks unable to make $130 million in stock market gains as she and her husband / stock partner had by legislation-driven whiplashes in the stock market).
Pelosi emphasized the breadth of her ordinary-Americans empathy in a 2009 Capitol Hill press conference, tugging heartstrings and challenging census accounts by emoting, “Every month that we do not have an economic recovery package, five hundred million Americans will lose their jobs.”
The deep feelings of The New York Times, Biden, Harris, Walz, Pelosi and fellow compassion machines continue being exercised in the service of causes once called “liberal” (though censoriously illiberal), now called “democratic socialist” (though the Marxists in that closet can hardly wait to come out), and on the currently hip trajectory (soon to be revealed as the reanimation of Lenin’s corpse).
Capitalism isn’t supported by pseudonyms. It doesn’t have the nitwit optimism of socialist promises. No, capitalism has just waged a quiet, incredibly successful global crusade against poverty for over two centuries. You can try your best to present evidence of this improvement in human society to a campus mob or an elegant garden party, but you should temper your expectations.
Tell them anyway: Capitalism has been the economic system eradicating poverty worldwide. It doesn’t reinforce poverty as socialism/ communism does. Capitalism inherently functions to encourage the virtues of human character, rather than magnifying human weaknesses commune-style. (Just ask a former member of a commune or kibbutz.) Capitalism is the political philosophy of a healthy, productive society, contrasting dramatically to socialism’s lament of losers.
Socialists are unable to understand how humanely capitalism works. They’re too busy explaining how their system has never been tried properly and ignoring that it’s enforced by dimwitted bureaucrats. And ignoring California.
The United States nears this year’s midterm elections with the very real possibility that these closet Marxists calling themselves Democratic Socialists will win a national foothold from which to destroy the republic. The bad news is that their deep-feeling broadcasts might defeat the rare national product of healthy traditional values and education. The good news is that people with those values and education can still fight back, and a poorly educated generation might learn worldly reality.
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Bittinger is a non-distinguished graduate of Glenbard West High School. (You should see its wall of Distinguished Alumni Awards).
He’s also a graduate of Vassar College’s first coed class, and as a devoted admirer of Mahler, still finds his brilliant, complex symphonies easier to understand than brilliant, complex women.
Comments 26
Bob Fioretti has a great video out called “Land of Lincoln? What do China, Cuba and Illinois have in Common?” Which examines why our legislatures, state executives and supreme court FEEL they do not need to follow the constitutions of the United States and the state of Illinois.
Our current government has established the state’s religion as moral relativism. Blessed Fulton Sheen has several videos on this subject.
This is what you get when you won’t say NO! to the children.
Nice Dave. I hate spewing coffee out my nose this early.
But I do enjoy reading your columns.
How sad that hate has taken over so many people and gossip is in their soul. The Press hates Trump so much that they have spewed lies and awful things to make themselves rich. America you have lost your honor. Thieves are taking over and the Press is Evil in so many ways. HATE IS AWFUL PEOPLE. STAY AWAY FROM THEM AND THE EVIL THAT SURROUNDS THEM. I DO NOT UNDERSTAND WHY PEOPLE THAT HATE AND GOSSIP GO TO CHURCH EVERY SUNDAY. VERY SAD.
An old metaphor as a response to our last sentence: The church is a hospital for sinners – not a museum for saints
Terrific article. Comedian Sebastian Maniscalco has this funny skit where he asks rhetorically “feelings? I don’t thing anyone in my family had feelings.” My father had a retail clothing company and our entire lives were spent supporting “the Store.” Our feelings and self esteem did not matter to anyone. The success of the business is all that mattered to maintain our sustenance. Lastly, regarding capitalism v. socialism, go to your local Jewel foods, or here in Florida, Publix grocery store. There are 20 different types of bread, 20 plus different cheeses, 20 plus sliced meats…Go to Cuba and see how many breads, cheeses, and meats there are. End of story.
Brilliant, Mr. BIttinger, absolutely brilliant!
A feelings narcissistic Leftist can fit their entire comprehension into a bumper sticker.
Thank you for the hopeful ending . I’ll take the “air sickness bag”.
Me too! Because as David emphasized – feelings over facts – often wins out. And given our President’s demeanor, and exaggerated angst on the economic front, it’s apparent that feelings are going to win out big time in November. As for the hopeful ending, that had better be in 2028, when it will be do or die.
Great as usual Dave.
I am still waiting for the sympathy/empathy for the four dead beluga whales “rescued’ from a shuttered, or should we say shuddered Canadian marine park. Is it me but would killer Chicago be the last place of refuge for any of God’s creatures? In our sympathy/empathy, could we at least donate the whale protein to a not so Cuba libre?
Ah, there is nothing new under the sun. Francisco d’Anconia has a conversation with a certain lady at a fancy party. She claims she knows she is right because of her feelings. Francisco politely disagrees with facts.
It’s a fascinating read. Atlas Shrugged – 1957
Capitalism is the physics of money. Interfere with it through overregulation or stupid economic theories like Keynesianism and the results are always catastrophic and don’t care about your feelings.
Democracy is mob rule and more prone to feelings driven stupidity than a constitutional republic that prevents the mob from violating the rights of the majority. The ancient Greeks learned this the hard way. Look up Alcibiades and the Sicilian campaign. It should come as no surprise that feelings driven Democrats would want to get rid of the filibuster, the Electoral College, and an originalist Supreme Court that decides cases on the basis of The Constitution rather than on their feelz.
Excellent column, David. Thanks for the logical clarification of what our free market system can do and does. It’s no wonder we have so many people who come to our shores, legally, to share in the American dream of having their own successful business. Opportunity knocks!
As for our previous emPATHETIC leader, he mostly felt like taking a nap.
This is a wonderful, insightful article. It could form the basis for a book in the near future. I felt reassured reading it, that perhaps our country will (a) remain intact, and (b) remain a republic.
The elements of the “Socialist” agendas that I suggest for a future discussion center on the unspoken DSA reliance on CCP funding while their platform suggests closer relations with China. The entirety of progressive socialism may very well be a Trojan horse, part of Xi’s great game of world domination.
well said! Coincidentally I read a letter-to-the-editor in today’s Rutland (VT) Herald by James Lyall (ED of ACLU-VT) a few of the things espoused are:
* “Vermont should invest more in making sure all residents have their basic needs met — including access to food, shelter, and healthcare
* “We also need the wealthy to pay their fair share in taxes, because a country in which the richest 1% control 30% of the nation’s wealth is no longer functioning as a true democracy. We need to end mass incarceration and racial profiling. And we need everyone — working families, renters, people struggling with homelessness — to have a place to live.”
* “…stop law enforcement from concealing their identities, and raise taxes on those who can most afford it…”
sigh….
Mark Swanson
link to full article: https://www.rutlandherald.com/opinion/commentary/lyall-democracy-depends-on-us/article_ce537844-558a-5df5-86de-38f7e66ad583.html
Idiocracy in full force.
Regarding the concerning trend of voting by feelings instead of by thinking, my answer to the question posed in the article is that I need a heck of a lot more than a hankie or even an airsickness bag. I would probably need to bow to the porcelain, to both handle and easily clean up the copious amounts being heaved.
Superb. I like agrarianism. This can both save our Republic, and all but wipe out the market for socialism.
Agrarianism informs capitalism. It assumes self sufficiency. It manifests action for the sake of Truth, pure and simple.
Empathy? Donald Trump puts empathy into action. Joy? Think of the thousands of sex trafficked children Trump has freed.
It shouldn’t even be a contest.
Agrarian virtue invented our Republic which we will keep.
Great letter!!
I have a “feeling” that I thoroughly enjoyed this article 😁
Mr.
You justifiably condemn all the failed socialist/communist states including the old Soviet Union, Cuba, and Venezuela but ignore countries like Norway, Sweden, and Finland, which are blends of capitalism and socialism. These all have their faults but also score consistently higher on happiness than Americans. And maybe the best measure of success for any state is the happiness of its citizens?
And for the record, I don’t hate Trump. I hate that Trump is president.
Bob you perpetuate a common myth. Sweden is not a socialist country; nor is it a blend of socialism and capitalism. It is a capitalistic free market economy. The means of production are in private hands. In fact Sweden’s corporate tax rate is less than the US corporate rate and its income tax is far less progressive than that of the US. It does have a very strong “safety net” exceeding that of the US. But that “net” is supported by high taxes, particularly the VAT. In fact when Sweden headed in the direction of “socialism” – in the 1970s and 80s – it’s economy flat lined and encouraged capital flight (see IKEA).
As far as “universal health care” there is a tradeoff. No country has found a way to provide all three aspects of a “perfect” health care system: expert care, timely care and inexpensive care. You can only pick two. If you don’t believe me, read about the wait list in the UK’s NHS or better yet review the Canadian wait times for elective surgery … helpfully published on line by the Canadian government. All of this confirmed by my former colleagues who have trained in such systems.
Bruce- You may be right about Sweden. My main point complaint is that not everybody that thinks a little differently should be labeled as a Marx
I realize the idea of “universal healthcare” is idealistic, and perhaps even unattainable given our current national debt among other factors. Call me a dreamer, but I do believe that someday, maybe it’s in the distant future, if we succeed in not destroying ourselves, our society will find a way to provide something akin to universal healthcare. And that will be a good thing.
May I respectfully suggest that your concern for the motivation of “…the most ‘devout’.” is rather misplaced, including your concern that conservatives view empathy as a dirty word. More to the point, my observation in watching the dynamic especially here in Illinois is that most don’t even clearly understand the difference between and the definition of the various states of communal concern: Sympathy means feeling sorry for someone’s hardship from a detached perspective, empathy means actively sharing and feeling another person’s emotional experience, and compassion means taking action to help relieve their suffering. Perhaps you could reconsider and sort out your strange conclusion, especially about your ‘devout’ friends.
That’s a brilliant comment, Mr. Kleinman. I try to write with your balance and composure, but don’t quite have that talent.
The universal health care trope seems to be the easiest and most “so there!/how about!” issue our more progressive friends love to trot out, and it is easily used because it is a topic everyone knows “something” about and cares about. To me it is perhaps cancer-care; to another it is setting a broken arm; or a band-aid for a skinned knee. Those who tout the universality as some kind of a golden goal never really define how this would ACTUALLY benefit the greater good, because they can’t! What is the incentive to innovate, to do better, to provide more, to expand our knowledge and skill? There is none when it’s ‘free’! If Mr. Lee or his compatriots think government can effectively run health care, I would point him to our own beloved VA system. Do some get good care there? Without question! Should it be a national model for our health care? This commenting system will not allow for all of the citations of concern about a national health care system; one that is only for a relatively small portion of the population. It won’t work!!!