One Thug Away...

Elon Musk interviewed Donald Trump on XformerlyTwitter the other day. Not surprisingly, many pearls were clutched at the prospect of the Untethered Orange Id being allowed to present his case for being elected this fall on what used to be the Left's favorite sandbox.

If it were only the clutching of pearls, we could laugh it off, but people of stature and importance believed it proper that this interview needed to be stopped before it began.

One EU commissioner and "digital enforcer," Thierry Breton, sent an ominous letter to Musk ahead of the interview. The letter was quickly disavowed, but it still serves as a tell-tale of a dangerous and too-common mindset.

One Washington Post reporter suggested to the White House that it should intervene in stopping "misinformation" and "disinformation." The WH Press Secretary response made no overtures toward that First Amendment the President swore to protect and defend, and instead commented that social media companies had just such an obligation.

Others suggested that users engage in a "Twitter blackout" during the interview's streaming, so as not to give the Trump campaign "numbers.

Obvious takeaways from this include the disinterest in free speech or the marketplace of ideas over on the Left side of the aisle, the lack of confidence that their own ideas and viewpoints can sway undecideds, and that they don't trust the American people to think for themselves.

None of which is news or even new.

That last bit is at the crux of modern Leftism, which has been diverging from liberalism for the past few decades at least. It is an extension of the notion that the Best-and-Brighest should be given the power (I almost wrote freedom, but that was one irony too far) to order society on everyone else's behalf. We have seen Kinsley Gaffes such as Clinton's "deplorables" line and Obama's "bitter clingers" bit reveal this truth, and today's self-appointed overseers don't even want to allow the unwashed masses the chance to hear anything that runs counter to what they know is best for everyone.

Some excuse this illiberal attitude toward speech by singling out Trump as a uniquely grave threat to the nation. They accuse him of fascistic intent, ignoring how fascistic it is to desire that government forcibly quash speech they don't like. They masquerade "speech they don't like" with labels like “misinformation” and “disinformation.” They ignore the lies told by their own side, and especially by the current President, and they ignore both the maxim that all politicians lie and that everyone knows all politicians lie. We don’t need and mustn’t want the government to be the arbiter of what’s true or what one can say.

And, they forget how they acted toward George W. Bush during his Presidency. GWB was, at the time, deemed by the Left to be the latest incarnation of Adolph H.

Sound familiar?

Roll history back a bit more and you will find countless examples of Ronald Reagan being excoriated as a destroyer of the nation.

So much for "unique."

The takeaway from all this is how perpetually in danger our liberties are. "Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty” remains as true today as the day it was first uttered (no, it wasn’t Jefferson).

What is certain is the endless desire of people who believe themselves better than us to have their way, even if it requires putting us under their boot. With more and more young people losing sight of what free speech means or is about, the peril is greater than it has been in a long time.

A couple years ago, I opined that,

We are one thug away from losing our rights.

One such thug is currently the front-runner to be our next President.

Who appears to be doing exactly what her ilk are pearl-clutching about.

Kamala Harris' presidential campaign has been running Google ads, just like many others. The only problem: Her campaign is deliberately making it look like news outlets like The Guardian, NPR, Reuters, the Associated Press, USA Today, and Time magazine are on her side by running ads designed to look like flattering headlines.

Would you trust a Harris administration to impartially combat mis- and disinformation? Would you trust her to honor her oath of office and “protect and defend” your rights?

I wouldn’t.

Once lost, those rights are nigh-on impossible to fully restore. Liberty can be messy. It can even be chaotic. But, the alternative is far worse. Ordered and structured and muzzled command societies where individual liberties are subordinate to the State’s desires are great for the people at the top and those who have figured out how to curry favor, but they are awful for everyone else.

Yes, the headlined thug is not an American politician, but his attitude clearly echoes that of many of our domestic mandarins. We’ve been seeing the telltales for years, and they are growing more brazen with every instance.

If the government manages to subvert free speech - and at this point, we are one Court-packing exercise away from seeing things like "disinformation bureaus" come into existence - we will not get it back.