By Peter Pavarini
Freedom’s just another word for nothin’ left to lose
Nothin’, it ain’t nothin’ honey, if it ain’t free
-Kris Kristofferson
As a college student I recall doing a rather poor rendition of “Me and Bobby McGee,” a Kris Kristofferson song popularized by the late blues singer Janis Joplin. Coming from a middle-class home and aspiring to a career in law, it was hard for me to imagine being busted flat in Baton Rouge (or anywhere for that matter).
Those lyrics came back to me, however, this week. Notwithstanding the Biden Administration’s abysmal first year in office and predictions of a building Red Wave, I still find it hard to be optimistic about the future of America. Traditional conservative Christians and other likeminded Americans have had every reason to believe things are bad and will probably get worse before they get better. The drumbeats of war in Ukraine, our prolonged inability to figure out COVID, an inflationary economy that is teetering on the edge of recession, an exploding crime rate and an unprotected border shouldn’t make anyone, regardless of their political affiliation, feel safe and secure.
A Turning of the Tide?
Surely, you might say, Progressives and the rest of the DNC faithful know the charade that began on January 20, 2021 is coming to an end. More Americans than ever are identifying as Republicans, and even more see themselves as disaffected Independents. CNN is cratering, Facebook recently lost 26% of its stock value, suburban Moms, Canadian truckers, renegade liberal comedians and columnists and even a few brave members of the Elite are all signaling a turning of the tide.
Still, I’m not sure that very much has changed.
Losing the Culture Wars
The Right has been at the losing end of the culture wars for at least two decades – probably longer.[i] Polls indicate that the majority of Americans have not seen the country as being on the “right track” (however defined) since 1999. Most of us admit to feeling like strangers in our own land – and that includes many who immigrated to the US and became citizens.
Those who consider themselves moderate or to the right of center (not necessarily Republican or even especially conservative – just average Americans who loved their country the way it was before the Age of Wokeness) have seen virtually every institution come under the thumb of the Left: academia, mainstream media, sports, entertainment, large corporations, mainline religious denominations, the military, not to mention the administrative state at all levels of government.
Perhaps the only thing the Left has not seized control of is the heart of us regular folks, regardless of our race, ethnicity, age or gender.
Don Feder is a lawyer, former Boston Herald columnist and media consultant best known for his book Who’s Afraid of the Religious Right[ii]. He had this to say about the quandary we’re in:
“How can the public choose sides when one side has nothing left to surrender? Not until the Right is prepared to lose on principles will we ever hope to win this culture war on which the survival of our Nation depends.”
A Tectonic Shift
American politics will not change course without a tectonic shift in culture. As the late Andrew Breitbart was known to say: “politics is downstream from culture.” Given the body count and mountains of trash in our cities, the decline in our standard of living, and the loss of our status as the world’s sole superpower, we can be sure that Barack Obama’s “fundamental transformation”[iii] of America has run its course. But if we want to restore what’s been lost, particularly those rights guaranteed by our Constitution, we need to take the gloves off and be prepared to win or lose on the basis of our most sacred principles.
In previous blogs I’ve discussed Judeo-Christian principles patriots should be willing to defend with their lives.[iv] Chief among them is standing up for the truth. From countless conversations I’ve had with others, I know I’m not alone. After all, what do we have left to lose? Robbed of our most basic freedoms, we can no longer afford to be timid or polite.[v]
An End to COVID Phobia
For starters, let’s just say it – and say it loud. America is done with COVID phobia. Seven of ten Americans polled say it’s time to move on.[vi] What more evidence do we need that the public health establishment has failed us miserably? Can anyone honestly prove that more lives were saved because of the CDC’s pandemic policies than were lost by the ridiculous, unscientific restrictions forced on Americans by their betters? When Johns Hopkins University, that tower of medical elitism, reported this week that hardly any lives were saved because of the lockdowns[vii], did we hear anyone say “Ooops, my bad”? No, we didn’t.
What will it take for Joe Biden and Anthony Fauci to stand before the American people and admit serious mistakes were made? When even NBA legend Shaquille O’Neal speaks out against vaccine mandates, isn’t it time for government to back away from its heavy-handed policies of intimidation and misinformation? If it refuses to do so, we should expect trucker convoys and blockades to come to American cities and interstates very soon. Just imagine the supply chain disruptions we’ll experience then!
Validating the “Big Lie”
While we are at it, we need to be bold in our belief that Trump’s “Big Lie” about the 2020 elections is about to be vindicated. State after state, even ones that Trump won, are reporting voting “irregularities” (only favorable to Democrats) that would make Vladimir Putin and Nicolas Maduro jealous. Biden’s continued freefall in the polls reflects much more than the public’s dissatisfaction with the job he’s doing. It’s further proof that he never received anything close to 81 million votes.
Even the media overlords are discovering that no one believes them anymore. Apart from CNN’s self-destruction, recent viewership numbers suggest that Fox News is now being watched by 42% of young Democrats and 58% of young independents. MSNBC barely registers a heartbeat.
Exposing Cancel Culture
Once Cancel Culture was exposed for what it really is – a form of Puritanism – most sane people, no matter their political bent, have decided they’d rather hear both sides of a debate than be told by censors and fact-checkers they’re too stupid to discern fact from fiction. Alternative media stars like Joe Rogan will ultimately win out over aging rockers who have sold their music catalogues for shares in Pfizer.
Before the Age of Wokeness, most of us knew the best way to find the common ground between opposing views was to reason together in a dialogical manner. Recognizing that no one is infallible, we relied upon logic and internalized values to test the soundness of every claim. Based upon that kind of problem-solving and anchored by a durable Constitution, we built and maintained the world’s greatest society – one that countless foreigners wish to join no matter what the Left says about us.
Our Real Freedom
Betrayed by the elites and public institutions, subjected to their hypocrisy and double standards, and culturally persecuted as unwashed “deplorables”, we have more reason than ever to trust in God and to live by the faith of our fathers. And therein lies our real freedom.
[i] Jack Meserve, “Progressives Declare Victory in the Culture War”, Democacy, Spring 2015; Eric Levitz, “Why the GOP is Ideologically Lost”, Intelligencer, April 30, 2021. But see, Alex Samuels, “Why Democrats Keep Losing Culture Wars”, FiveThirtyEight, February 2, 2022.
[ii] Regnery Publishing (1996).
[iii] President Obama spoke endlessly about fundamentally transforming a nation that was founded in its dedication to liberty and rejection of government tyranny. There’s little doubt he and Attorney General Eric Holder had no qualms about resegregating blacks and whites, reopening the wounds in the body politic that had largely healed before 2008, and spreading not the “hope” he campaigned on but rather enough hatred to usher in a Marxist agenda.
[iv] https://alessandrocamp.com (2016-2022).
[v] Dan Redington, “The Perils of Politeness in an Era of Anarchy”, American Thinker, February 4, 2022.
[vi] “Time to Accept Covid and Move On?”, Monmouth University Polling Institute, January 31, 2022; Ben Domenech, “Americans Are Fed Up With Democrats’ Covid Panic”, The Federalist, February 1, 2022.
[vii] J. Herby, et al, “A Literature Review and Meta Analysis of the Effects of Lockdowns on COVID-19 Mortality”, JHU Institute for Applied Economics, January 2022.
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