As I watch and listen to the reports and commentary coming in from Canada on the protest of the Covid-19 vaccine mandates by the truckers who call themselves the Freedom Convoy, I am struck by the degree to which this confrontation is in many ways representative of the ultimate conflict we face. This is way beyond the immediate and proximate issue, way beyond Canada and the vaccine mandates. It’s a lead element in the showdown between freedom and the administrative state, between the elites and the working class, between the “science” of policy experts and common sense, and between pluralistic and representative government and a “woke” majoritarianism that invites intolerance. And it will get much worse before it gets better, but only when the liberal establishment steps up to take restorative leadership of the cultural institutions it owns and has been complicit in their corruption. Let me have your thoughts.
The last statement is “pie in the sky” as liberals have never taken responsibility for anything !
The world has fallen into times of barbarism throughout the history of humankind. Yet there has been redemption and restoration brought by the few who are given the wisdom to persuade the people of a better way. We cannot give up hope that those are among us and will step forward to lead us out of this madness.
The LORD preserveth the strangers; he relieveth the fatherless and widow: but the way of the wicked he turneth upside down. Psalms 146:9
Maybe Trudeau and Biden/Harris are part of God’s plan to bring reform to out of control authoritarian governments.
The GOP will take both Houses this fall and they should slash budgets and prepare for complete restructuring in 2024.
Defund the Swamp.
And last night likely after your comments and supporting what you wrote was the earthquake where with 6% of registered Republican voters and 85% who voted for Biden three School Board members were recalled in SAN FRANCISCO! The worm is turning!
QUESTION: How do we move “ownership” of our cultural institutions _away_ from the liberal establishment?
This is the way!
It starts with an overhaul of K-16 education, the “pipeline”. Won’t happen until we take back the schools.
The Left cannot and will not take “restorative leadership of the cultural institutions IT OWNS” (Your words, Jim).
The Democratic Party has for a very long time been the party of evil (slavery, Jim Crow, segregation, the KKK, lynchings) and authoritarianism. It will not change. You overlook the role of Gramsci’s teachings, which the Dems have taken to heart, successfully, because many Americans are trusting sheep and they are being taken to the cleaners. Biden and his incompetent, anti-American Cabinet prove that.
Socialists are by nature tyrants, with “one size fits all”.
Tom – I did not say “left”, I said “liberal”, and there is a difference, or used to be, when we had a responsible left in this country. But the fact is that the liberal establishment owns the cultural institutions that must be reformed–from the corporate world to the education system to the performing arts to the philanthropic community to the media. If they can’t or won’t stand up, the hard right will hit the street, and it won’t be pretty.
It has more often required a crisis to create the circumstances in which such major turns are possible. Ukraine may be that.
I see the Freedom Convoy, the San Francisco school board recall, Youngkin’s election and recent relaxation of some Covid restrictions in blue states as small hopeful indications of a wider trend. However, more hopeful is the way average American’s have just moved on with their lives. My sphere of travel and work is small. Houston County, Madison County, Trinity County, Walker County and Montgomery County. The vast majority of people I see and deal with have taken certain precautions but moved on with life. This extends far beyond Covid issues and includes the utter silliness and absurdities of the left and woke. A gas fill up is seen as an opportunity to talk to the person at the next pump about the ridiculous and stupid ideas coming from Washington.
However, with that in mind I’m alarmed with the policy initiatives put forth by the most powerful among us. Those being from big business, big tech, big banks, big media and high-level politicians around the world. Namely, the idea of “stake holder” capitalism, or more bluntly, socialism for the masses, you and I, and capitalism for the elite. The idea that the powerful will use that power to force the less powerful and/or unwilling into wokism and social capitalism by squeezing off their access to capital. Michael Rectenwald lays this out very well in the December issue of Imprimis. I encourage it as a read to my friends and family.
I agree, the Rectenwald piece was a good analysis of the insidious nature of what we face.
Jim, my hope is in the American Spirit. I still believe there are vast numbers of those with the American Spirit of individual freedom, work ethic, family values and the American Dream. Those people cannot be crushed, silenced or forced into submission. As long as that Spirit survives, our hope survives as a nation.
Thinkers like yourself do much to keep that Spirit alive. Thanks for what you do.
The resignation of LEVI’s female president so that she could speak truth to power without interference is another sign that the silent majority has had it.
Likewise, the resignation of Michelle Tafoya from the NBC sports network after some 30 years so that she can speak freely and presumably conservatively on the insanity in the sports and other worlds.
The silent and overwhelmingly conservative majority is slowly awakening. November approaches and with it hope — but only hope unless the new folks entering Congress permit themselves to get sucked into the swamp!
America has been slipping into socialism, quietly and smoothly ever since the birth of the Progressives circa 1900. Woodrow Wilson was a Prog, a declared socialist who despised the constitution, and was also a pig. He lied about staying out of the European War, but once re-elected, jumped right in. He also re-segregated the US military.
Just as now, he was an academic. I would not send a kid to any school except Hillsdale.
So it’s been a slow but steady descent, and it will take much more time than I have left, and many struggles, to set it on the right course again.
I am wondering who in this group believes the election was stolen by Biden. Evidence failed in 64 courts. What will it take to convince people that Trump is wrong in riding this horse every day and leading people to a cliff. Truth is important to our democracy. Jesus said ” you shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free”.
Yes, David you are right. The truth is important, very important. Something that has lost on Biden for 50 years.
It has more often required a crisis to create the circumstances in which such major turns are possible. Ukraine may be that.