‘Before beginning today’s column, my search terms were Gorbachev and Obama’

Never mind Lenin or Stalin — David Warren says Obama’s opponents have got hold of the wrong end of USSR:

Yet they do have one major thing in common, and that is the belief that, regardless of what the ruler does, the polity he rules must necessarily continue. This is perhaps the most essential, if seldom acknowledged, insight of the post-modern “liberal” mind: that if you take the pillars away, the roof will continue to hover in the air.

A variant of this is the frequently expressed denial of the law of unintended consequences: the belief that, if the effect you intend is good, the actual effect must be similarly happy.

Very small children, the mad, and certain extinct primitive tribes [me: RACISM!!!!!!!!] have shared in this belief system, but only the fully college-educated liberal has the vocabulary to make it sound plausible.