In a previous column, I wrote that the most important issue of this election is what happened to General Flynn with out-of-control government abuse. If Trump is not reelected the culprits will get away with it. Yet that is not the grinding issue of this election. It is the onslaught attempting to dismantle the First Amendment and now the Fourth Amendment being pushed by the Left. Unless the rest of America stands up here and now, we will have irreversible damage.
Republicans tend to focus on the Second Amendment (with justifiable reason) since the Left has attempted to take guns out of the hands of law-abiding citizens. Totalitarians take the guns out of the hands of their citizens; then when they strip rights away from the citizens, they cannot defend themselves. Follow the patterns of Erdogan in Turkey and Chavez/Maduro in Venezuela. These were wonderful countries until these despots systemically destroyed them and the rights of the citizens. The arguments for gun control are often insipid as the gun violence almost universally is done by people who illegally obtain guns. That will not be eliminated by new gun restrictions.
As important as that issue is, the massive attack on the First Amendment has never been seen in this country like it is happening now, especially since we are not in war time. But then again we are in a different war. While conceptualizing this column the examples that were going to be used kept evolving as they occurred at a dizzying rate. It is almost impossible to cite anything in this column without seeming mundane as you, the reader, have learned of so many instances that you have become almost immune to how dangerous the suppression of free speech has become. It is as commonplace as getting your morning coffee. What has become referred to as the Cancel Culture shatters careers and lives virtually daily. People losing their jobs, a soccer player losing his job because his wife posted an opinion on social media, college professors threatened for not adhering to the latest convention.
One of my favorites is a U.C. Berkeley history professor who recently had to write a piece anonymously because he would risk his/her position or have a life-threatening experience. The argument was made that the Black Community should not externalize their problems when they are internally created, and the other professors are harming Blacks by encouraging the externalization. The author also blames Black Live Matters as being complicit in this manifestation. Can you imagine how this professor’s life would be turned asunder if this piece was written with a byline?
The suppression of one’s loss of freedom of speech has evolved into complete obedience as the abusers now demand ideological purity. In fact, ideological purity has become the focal point of the Left as being consistent with the history of their Marxist strains.
Ideological purity has been around for a while with the Left’s two main concerns — abortion and climate change. Senator Al Gore, 30 years ago, lectured MIT Professor of Climatology Richard Lindzen (formerly of Harvard) that 97% of scientists were in support of what was then global warming and is now referred to as climate change. Since then, the 97% of scientists’ canard has been flailed around while supporters have crucified anyone who does not support their orthodoxy.
The wisdom of ideological purity remains more questionable in a country divided on abortion. Ron Silver, long-time actor and vocal supporter of abortion rights, decided to deviate from the abortion purism. He was mercilessly attacked by abortion rights supporters to his shock. That was even before social media as Mr. Silver died in 2009. Purity is demanded.
That has basically extended to most thought on the Left at expense of the First Amendment as recent incidents amplified the ideological purity demands. Heather Mac Donald, an author who focuses on policing in America, cited a scientific study by university psychologists Joseph Cesario of Michigan State and David Johnson of the University of Maryland. The peer reviewed, then published study found there were no race disparities between treatment races by police in shootings. Once MacDonald cited the study it had to be disavowed by all on the Left. Professor Steven Hsu was sacked from his position at MSU for his funding of the study. Hsu is a second generation American of Chinese heritage and an obvious “racist” for helping to fund a scientific study that found an inconvenient truth.
Plying you with more instances of attacks on the First Amendment is not necessary. You see it every day around you at an alarming rate. What you may not be convinced of yet is that you need to fight and claw to defend the First Amendment in this election. Not just your right to say what you want, but to assemble as you want (even if you are not protestors for BLM), to practice religion as you want (even if you wish to sing and chant). All aspects of the First Amendment are under attack as never before. If you don’t fight for it in this upcoming election, then you may never gain back what will be lost in the next presidential term.
Then there is the abridgement of the Fourth Amendment. The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated. That has been rampant in recent months. The government has not protected people from unreasonable seizure of their property.
One could even argue the law that allows theft of goods from shop owners of up to $950 is an attack on the Fourth Amendment. Government condones the fact that people can walk into stores and take up to $950 of goods and they will not be prosecuted for their deviant behavior. That is a government endorsed attack on the 4th Amendment.
You really need to focus on the fact that these laws have led directly to the looting that was done. Many people were already enabled to walk into retailers and walk out with goods and the retailers were helpless to stop them. It is a small step to breaking a window in a riot and looting a store with a certain level of confidence the authorities will do nothing to stop it. And that is exactly what has occurred.
The most egregious example was the establishment of a six-block lawless zone in Seattle. Withing those six blocks were roughly 30,000 residents, hundreds of businesses and hundreds of buildings, all seized in a government-excused action. This was a clear attack on the 4th Amendment which restricts seizure as the government refused to act on behalf of owners. The government initially encouraged it and never stated that the taking of government and citizens’ property was illegal. No one was arrested for this clearly lawless activity.
If we do not stand up against this political movement, we will be further besieged by those who want to dismantle our rights under both the 4th and 1st Amendments. The Amendments will become so hollowed out as to be unrecognizable. You know which party has abandoned your rights and which will defend them. That is what is at stake in this election. You just have to decide if you care enough to defend your God given and constitutional rights.