Hints began appearing as the weekend warmed up.  There is a new definition of “liberal” shaping up, and it is rather ugly.  In the weekly discussion with Ben Domenech last Friday, Domenech brought up the fact that the mess that is health care these days belongs with Democrats (think Obamacare), even if, oddly, Republicans somehow get blamed.  Later in the same interview the host described the DNC’s “autopsy” as actually being an alibi.  (You can read it here if you need a nap.)  That’s when things really started to click.  But yesterday a piece appeared that made it all too plain.

Yesterday, Cal Thomas’ column opened with these words:

It’s so easy and comfortable being a liberal: You never have to admit you’re wrong when you demonstrably are.

Thomas’ subject for the column is climate change, but applied more broadly, never admitting a mistake truly is the defining characteristics of being liberal.  As the host points out, the so-called autopsy is an exercise in not admitting to mistakes made in the last presidential campaign.  Domenech’s healthcare comment is most informative.  The  mess that is health care has become Republican’s fault because because, by-and-large, Obamacare has been dismantled by a majority Republican appointed court.  Which, in the mind of a liberal says, “We did the right thing, but they won’t let us do it like it should be done.”  Rather than note that they made a mistake and bit off more than the Constitution allows – they blame the “conservative” courts.

The failure of Obamacare is an excellent example of how this new defining characteristic came to be so dominant among liberals.  No word better describes Barack Obama than “haughty.”  Meaning, “blatantly and disdainfully proud : having or showing an attitude of superiority and contempt for people or things perceived to be inferior.”  If we are honest, everything not Obama is inferior to Obama in Obama’s mind and the Democratic Party has swallowed that bait hook, line and sinker.

Barack Obama did something extremely admirable – he was the first African-American elected to the highest office in the land.  But he then proceeded to act as if that were enough all on its own. He seemed to think that such a distinction was sufficient to grant him eternal and undeniable rectitude.  He sought more to bless us with his self-defined “wisdom” than to serve the nation.  And Democrats have taken that attitude unto themselves overwhelmingly.

There are two important ramifications to this.  One, service and humility are the defining characteristics of Christian character.  Christian character matters far more than Christian doctrine or thinking.  and so, in adopting this new defining characteristic Democrats are rejecting Christianity in ways not often discussed.  The second ramification is far more practical, however.

If you never admit a mistake, you never learn from it.  This new defining characteristic of liberalism, and therefore the Democratic Party, means they have jettisoned the foundation of the mechanism of self-correction.  We see it everyday as the party moves farther and more radically leftward.  If you want to understand why the party keeps moving towards such left-leaning insanity, you need look no further than the fact that it has lost its ability to alter course because it can no longer acknowledge that its current course is mistaken in some fashion.

This will spell the ultimate doom of the Democratic Party.  The only question is how much damage will it do while dying?