September 19, 2022 at 11:32 a.m.
The dangerous radicalism of the Democratic Party
The dangerous radicalism of the Democratic Party
It is not hyperbole to say that progressives in general, and the Democratic Party in particular, has embraced fascism - the very thing they accuse Republicans of - specifically, they seek the unification of state and corporate power to impose a repressive regime and to outlaw dissent.
But it's a shotgun marriage: The state holds the gun to the corporations' heads to do their dirty work, and the government threatens retribution if they don't.
Again, none of this is hyperbole. Just last week, Sen. Elizabeth Warren and other powerful Democrats publicly jawboned major credit card companies to begin tracking gun sales - laying the groundwork to have those companies ban the use of their cards for any gun sales - and within days the credit card companies immediately complied, agreeing to become official deputies for the U.S. deep state.
This is similar to White House pressure on Twitter to ban Alex Berenson - who has repeatedly challenged the government's Covid narratives - which Twitter did a week later, as recently revealed emails show.
In addition, a lawsuit filed against the Biden administration by the attorneys general of Missouri and Louisiana has led to the discovery of a massive and coordinated censorship campaign within the administration, involving scores of federal offices and sprawling across a dozen federal agencies. The aim is singular: Suppress any dissent from the government's messaging.
The government has also joined forces with globalist foundations and think tanks to help fund and drive the oppression - groups with names such as the Aspen Institute's Commission on Disinformation Disorder and the Institute for Strategic Dialogue.
And it's not just social media through which the government is targeting those who disagree with the regime. We mentioned the effort to pressure credit card companies about guns, but they have pressured companies such as PayPal and Stripe to ban dissidents from the financial system.
It's international in scope, too. In Canada, Justin Trudeau froze the bank accounts of protesting truckers, and in Europe the EU has banned Russian state-owned broadcasters, saying they spread misinformation. They no doubt do, but how is that any different from the disinformation spread daily in this country by the state-controlled corporate media?
The depth of the suppression effort is much more than realized. Out in California, a bill has passed the state legislature that would classify as unprofessional conduct the dissemination by doctors and surgeons of Covid-19 and Covid vaccine "misinformation," and subject those physicians to disciplinary action, including the revocation of their medical licenses.
And just what is misinformation under the bill? Well, according to the bill's language, that would be "false information that is contradicted by contemporary scientific consensus contrary to the standard of care." And "disseminate" means conveying that information to their patients.
In other words, tell your patients what you really believe and you could lose your medical license if it runs counter to the prevailing consensus. Not surprisingly, the prevailing consensus will be determined by the Medical Board of California and the Osteopathic Medical Board of California, which will be able bring disciplinary actions against doctors who do not comply. Also not surprisingly, the American Medical Association (AMA) controls those boards.
The legislation is fatally flawed in two big ways - though it could become law nonetheless. First, critics say it would poison and criminalize informed consent because it will prevent doctors from comprehensively discussing treatment options with their patients, thereby stripping patients of their right to be fully aware of potential medical or therapeutic interventions.
Second, it is unconstitutional because it violates the First Amendment free speech rights to disagree with what the government deems to be the "consensus" standard of care.
The larger issue in all this is the increasing weaponization of "consensus" as the way to censor free speech and impose broad government policies and mandates: Government experts and government-aligned scientists come to a consensus about what is right, which is an eternal truth in this world view, and so no one should be able to challenge it. The government judgment represents a universal solidarity of approach and thought - to disagree is to be obviously misinformed - and so the population must acquiesce.
It is known as consensus enforcement, and these days progressives are brazenly using "consensus" to censor those with whom they disagree. Indeed, consensus enforcement is seeping into every sphere of life, posing a grave threat to free speech and thus to liberty itself.
We've talked about the most obvious examples - the government manufactured a vaccine consensus and pressured Big Tech to enforce it. On its website, Google Publisher's policy proudly proclaims that it does not allow content that "promotes harmful health claims, or relates to a current, major health crisis and contradicts authoritative scientific consensus."
In April 2021, YouTube removed a recording of a roundtable conducted by Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-Florida). The reason? Participants contradicted "the consensus of local and global health authorities regarding the efficacy of masks."
Now, if Newsom signs this bill, doctors' licenses will disappear if they don't comply with the "consensus."
Unfortunately, the progressives' use of consensus enforcement is a lot more pernicious than these few examples. For years government bureaucracies and their associated partners in the academic and corporate worlds have been misusing "consensus" to enact a far-left agenda. This has already had a major impact by rule-making fiat and through the setting of consensus standards in agriculture, in manufacturing, and in labor relations in all industries.
To cite just one example, the Occupational Health and Safety Administration (OSHA) has formal regulations, but it also has "consensus standards," or "recommendations or operating practices that are created by a group of experts that do not, by themselves, have the ability to be enforced."
The key words in that language are "by themselves." Everyone impacted by those consensus standards knows full well that they are supposed to follow them, or else. If you don't follow an OSHA consensus standard, since these standards are the consensus of experts, noncompliance can result in being sued by movement groups friendly to those experts and their agenda. Those who set standards for occupational licensing may also require compliance with the consensus standards, as might insurance providers.
The government is enforcing those standards not "by themselves" but indirectly through its friends or those they can pressure. Indeed, this government pressure to enforce "consensus" through third parties has provided the template for the current effort to pressure Big Tech to censor dissidents on social media platforms.
And this is happening not just in the federal government. The reality is that the imminent threat to freedom is greater today not least because enforced consensus is rampant not only horizontally across federal agencies but vertically, down into the state legislatures in progressive-controlled states, as in California, and in unelected bureaucracies in all states.
It's happening in Wisconsin. In today's edition, we explore the radical policy positions of Lt. Gov. Mandela Barnes. Many are frightening, indeed, such as his talk about the need to stymie capitalism; or his idea to release half the state's prison population, two-thirds of which are classified as violent offenders; or to impose an onerous carbon tax.
But even more terrifying are that Democrats want their beliefs and values to be the official beliefs and values of the government. Looking at the recommendations of Barnes's climate change task force, he would not just impose economically devastating costs to force compliance with the global warming consensus, but he would support laws aimed at brainwashing and groupthinking every school child and every government employee into compliantly following the government line.
Schools would have to teach climate justice, not just present all sides of the climate debate, mind you, but "teach" the concept that catastrophic climate change is real and requires drastic action and equity redistribution.
There would be mandatory climate/racism training for state employees, too, and he would establish an Office of Environmental Justice to sue racist taxpayers whom the government decides is plundering the earth, which will be not just an environmental crime but discrimination by definition.
And while they did not adopt them, the task force also explored other ideas, such as presuming a person guilty until proven innocent when charged with committing an environmental crime.
It is straight up totalitarianism. And so was the massive closure of schools and businesses during the pandemic.
We close with a couple of points. The first is, dictatorial regimes typically justify that their oppression and censorship is necessary because any dissent is too dangerous to tolerate, either to public health or national security. This is exactly the kind of thing the Founders warned about - that fundamental rights have to be fundamental rights even in emergencies.
Over the past six years, the Democrats have either manufactured or exploited crisis after crisis to terrify Americans into compliance: the election of Donald Trump, the Russia collusion hoax, the pandemic, January 6, the Ukraine war.
In all these, the government has told us it's just too dangerous to disagree.
And this was exactly the argument Joe Biden was making in his red-devil speech in which he accused half the country of being a threat to the soul of the nation. Trump supporters and conservatives are simply too dangerous to be tolerated.
At long last, the top Democrat said the quiet part out loud.
There's a lot at stake in these mid-term elections, and, to be sure, bread-and-butter issues like inflation, the economy, and taxes need to be a top priority, along with who will control our education system. But voters need to not forget what has transpired over the past few years, and what the Democratic Party has become. Voters must not forget that free speech and the right to dissent are also on the ballot.
If we lose the latter, we will no longer have a voice in the former. It will be a command economy, and the elites will be giving all the commands.
So pray for the red wave - for short-term sake, for long-term sake, for liberty's sake.
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