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Right To Win A Losing Philosophy

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The Tampa Tribune

Published: November 23, 2008

Among the many new "rights" being conjured out of thin air, a new one seems to be a "right" to win.

Americans have long had the right to put their candidates and their ideas to a vote. Now there seems to be a sense that your rights have been trampled on if you don't win.

Hillary Rodham Clinton's supporters were not merely disappointed, but outraged, when she lost the Democrats' nomination to Barack Obama. Some took it as a sign that, while racial barriers had come down, the "glass ceiling" holding down women was still in place.

Apparently, if you don't win, somebody has put up a barrier or a ceiling. The more obvious explanation of the nomination outcome was that Obama ran a better campaign than Clinton.

The worst of all the reactions from people who act as if they have a right to win have come from gay activists in the wake of voter rejection of so-called gay marriage, which is to say, redefining what marriage has meant for centuries.

Blacks and Mormons have been the main targets of the gay activists' anger. Seventy percent of blacks voted against gay marriage in California, so racial epithets were hurled at blacks in Los Angeles - not in black neighborhoods, by the way.

Blacks who just happened to be driving through Westwood, near the University of California at Los Angeles, were accosted in their cars and, in addition to being denounced, were warned, "You better watch your back."

In Oakland, Calif., a mob gathered outside a Mormon temple in such numbers that officials shut down a nearby freeway exit for more than three hours.

In their midst was a San Francisco supervisor who said, "The Mormon church has had to rely on our tolerance in the past, to be able to express their beliefs." He added, "This is a huge mistake for them. It looks like they've forgotten some lessons."

While demanding tolerance from others, gay activists apparently feel no need to show any themselves.

When the majority of the people become like sheep, who will tolerate intolerance rather than make a fuss, then there is no limit to how far any group will go.

Thomas Sowell's columns are distributed by Creators Syndicate.

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