In George Bernard Shaw's "Back to Methuselah," the serpent says to Eve in the Garden of Eden: "You see things; and you say, 'Why?' But I dream things that never were; and I say, 'Why not?' "
What's funny is that a version of this quote is often ascribed to Robert F. Kennedy as the perfect distillation of progressive idealism.
I don't think Kennedy's idealism was the root of all evil, or even remotely evil in its intent. But this idea — on display at the Democratic convention this week and an article of faith in Democratic politics — that all that prevents us from doing profound, "transformative" things is our lack of imagination can have objectively evil consequences.
Many of the Democrats who sought their party's nomination this year didn't just promise to socialize medicine, enact the "Green New Deal," ban fracking, etc. They also insisted that it would be fairly easy to do. The only things that prevented such transformational policies were obstruction by villainous billionaires or special interests and the failure of previous politicians to think big enough.
More recently, progressive activists and politicians have endorsed the idea of abolishing the police and "canceling" rent.
The first problem with this sort of rhetoric is practical. Many of these proposals are simply bad ideas on the merits. Canceling rent and abolishing the police are catastrophically dumb ideas. If you cancel rent, landlords will be unable to pay for heat or electricity, never mind repairs. Countless plumbers, electricians, janitors, painters et al. would lose their livelihoods. Landlords would default on their mortgage payments to banks. And banks would be stuck with properties that are essentially worthless, causing a cascading economic crisis that would make our current travails seem puny by comparison. And that's if the courts let any of this happen in the first place.
Truly abolishing the police would invite horrifying levels of violence, looting and robbery, as well as a riot of vigilantism as homeowners, business owners and other citizens took self-defense into their own hands.
The consequences of the Green New Deal or "Medicare for All" wouldn't be nearly as biblical, but reasonable people can still acknowledge they would involve massive trade-offs. Whether you think those trade-offs are worth it speaks volumes about where you stand politically.