When Joe Biden listed the Democrats' "preferences," he created one of the most replayed clips of the campaign, saying, "We prefer truth over facts." Everyone laughed at the latest product of the "gaffe machine" as he's been known for years. But this gaffe is indeed "a politician accidently telling the truth." It was clearly accidental, but what does it reveal about Biden and "we Democrats"? More important, what is the truth they prefer over facts?

To find out quickly, ask recent college graduates what absolute truths they believe exist. Odds are you'll be told there aren't any. "What's true for you may not be true for me." One young friend even told me something can be true and not true at the same time. "Everything's relative," he said. "Truth is subjective." He wouldn't go so far as to say it's whatever he wants it to be, but he couldn’t make a good case that it isn’t.

We might think of this as just philosophical post-modernism, but it's at least as old as Pontius Pilate. Can’t you hear a professor challenging a student with "What is truth?"

It's such a convenient, and therefore seductive, view of reality's many parts and attributes. You don't have to prove or make a case for your truth just because it differs from mine or what's been generally accepted, perhaps for centuries. More important, unless it's prima facie false, it doesn't have to be supported by or defended against any evidence or relevant facts.

The Left holds many such truths. Twentieth-century-style liberals, no longer including Joe Biden, hold fewer but important ones. Because of this, policy debates are less and less about sound evidence and more and more about prejudices, attitudes, motivations, and social "sins." Secretary Clinton listed those sins—racism, sexism, homophobia, xenophobia, and islamophobia—to which we have to add white privilege, white supremacy, clinging to guns and religion, and several others. The Woke are making up new ones all the time.

You know many of the Left's "truths." Here are some of the common ones that haven’t been widely held by past generations (without suggesting they all believe them all):

·  Gender is a social construct, not a biological reality.

·  A heart-beating unborn child is not yet a human being.

·  Socialism is a workable system that can promote human flourishing.

·  Fascism is an ultra-conservative ideology, not leftist.

·  Freedom of speech must be limited when some are offended.

·  Religion is a force for evil, not good.

·  Marijuana is a harmless recreation, even for children and adolescents.

·  A corporation’s taxes are paid by management and shareholders (not by its customers, i.e. American consumers).

·  Economic growth is accelerated more by government "investment" and regulation than by free enterprise and risk taking.

·  Equality comes before liberty.

·  Justice means equality of outcomes. All economic inequality is unjust.

·  Hate crimes are more grievous—and should be punished more severely—than others doing the same damage.

·  Limiting immigration is racist.

·  Conservatives are racists.

Biden’s Democrats do indeed prefer these "truths" and others over facts that challenge and often contradict them.

Those holding such "truths" are impatient, not only with facts, but with those who challenge them. Uninterested in contrary arguments and evidence, they attack their challengers’ honesty, motives, integrity, social "sins," race, ethnicity, and faith. They see them as wanting to take away their freedom to be or do what their truths allow. Thus, dispassionate, honest debate has all but disappeared, replaced by name-calling, accusations, and disinformation.

"Truth over facts" means the main tenets of Leftism are not debatable; they’re the relative, subjective, non-absolute truths described by our young graduates. Biden’s statement wasn’t a misstatement at all, just a dumb, guffaw-prompting way to put it—"a politician accidentally telling the truth."

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