FARRELL: The Republic Isn’t Sunk Yet

[IceWizard]

OPINION

FARRELL: The Republic Isn’t Sunk Yet











CHRIS FARRELL
JUDICIAL WATCH


One takeaway from the rhetoric surrounding the
ongoing election dispute is that Republicans should fear for their safety
in a prospective Biden America. Despite the former vice president’s
calls for post-election unity, many on the political left are simply out
for revenge.

Over the past four years liberals have turned normal policy debates
into cancel culture vendettas. They believe that those who disagree
with their political prescriptions are either venal or stupid, or more
likely both. They charge without evidence that anyone who voted for
Donald Trump is ipso facto racist, sexist, homophobic, other
“isms” or “phobias” – and whatever other biases they have handy.

The expression “reeducation camps” started trending on Twitter
recently after California DNC member David Atkins mused about
how to “deprogram” 75 million Trump supporters, which he described
as “a conspiracy theory fueled belligerent death cult against
reality & basic decency.” Basic decency, really? New York Magazine
art critic Jerry Saltz chimed in with his solution, noting that
“Republicanism is a social problem” that must be “isolated and
snuffed out” like coronavirus. That seems a lot more like belligerent
death-cult language, but it is common parlance in liberal circles.
Stalin would be proud.

The spirit of the blacklist is alive and well, and now enjoys all the
contemporary tools of information technology.
The Trump Accountability Project was created to compile lists of
those who “profited” from the Trump years and “loosed the guardrails
on our democracy.” This was so blatantly off message for the
Biden team that it was quietly shut down, or at least made less
public. Doxxing is more effective than ever, however. The site
DonaldTrump.Watch promised to use Federal Election contribution
data to reveal “Americans that Donated to a Vulgar, Lying,
Draft Dodger and Tax Cheat. 220,000 DEAD.” But this approach
was tantamount to incitement to violence, so the previous url
now redirects to the more neutral Donor Watch site, which can
serve the same purpose but without the inflammatory language.
Imagine if antifa-style rioting became less random and more directed,
empowered by sites like this. It’s no wonder gun sales are soaring.

The Lincoln Project, a collection of disgraced NeverTrumper Republicans
cashing in on anti-Trump mania, has been trying to intimidate law firms
into not providing services to the Trump campaign and others
challenging the election results. This goes against American principles
of due process and fair play, since in our country everyone is entitled
to have an attorney to engage in the legal process. These Stasi-style
tactics are corrosive to the Constitution and dangerous to the rule of law.

Conservatives also have good reason to be concerned what might
come from a prospective Biden presidency. Calls for unity are nice,
but who can believe them? We saw the Obama administration abuse
the IRS to take down conservative groups, violating their constitutional
rights to free association. The Intelligence Community and FBI were
weaponized to interfere in the 2016 election and then hobble a
legitimately elected president. Emergency powers have been abused
during the coronavirus pandemic to impose social controls that
Democrats will be loath to surrender. Conservatives are shut out
of mainstream media, academe, and the entertainment industry.
Social media has imposed thorough censorship of any ideas that
self-appointed leftist minders find annoying. Freedom has simply
become the freedom to do what you’re told.

But the Republic isn’t sunk yet. The First Amendment still exists,
and some people continue to honor it. There are increasing avenues
of free expression. Fox News’ loss is One America News’ gain.
Trump supporters shut out of Reddit created a new web site that
quickly became one of the top 500 sites in the country. Republican
down-ballot gains in 2020 show that the concept of checks and
balances is not extinct. And the Supreme Court, for now, has a
steadier lineup than any time since the 1950s.

It is ironic that the same liberals who idealize the martyrs of
the Hollywood blacklist and decry the “McCarthyism” of that
earlier era are engaged in a much more systematic and destructive
version of the same thing. And just to be clear, in large part
Senator McCarthy was correct, his warnings against communist
infiltration in the government were true and accurate. There is
a difference between exposing agents of a foreign power
betraying the public trust and ruing the lives of those who simply
have differing views of public policy. Meanwhile we have spent
four years hearing about completely phony links between the
Trump administration and Russia, reported as though they
were true. Imagine what liberals could do with all the
institutions of government. Voltaire’s warning that
“those who can make you believe absurdities can make
you commit atrocities” has never been more relevant.




Chris Farrell is director of investigations and research
at Judicial Watch, a nonprofit government watchdog.
He is a former military intelligence officer.