A couple of things have happened in the news which should concern people who value Liberty, as they are a dark omen of things to come. It is not only the events themselves, but the reaction to them that is deeply concerning. There are precious few and unlikely ways that this future can be avoided, so patriots must brace themselves as the current regime is replaced by a new regime, every bit as hostile to the truth and Liberty as the present one.

This last Friday, Vice President Elect Mike Pence took his family to watch a performance of the musical “Hamilton” on Broadway. After the performance was over, the cast came onto stage to applause and to address the crowd, which is a custom which has been observed since even before Shakespeare. During this address, the cast specifically addressed Governor Pence, eliciting boos from the audience. Immediately, Brandon Victor Dixon, the actor who played Aaron Burr, said “There’s nothing to boo here, ladies and gentlemen. There’s nothing to boo here. We’re all here sharing a story of love.” He then proceeded to make his heart felt statement.

After hearing about what happened, Donald Trump unloaded on Twitter, directing his usual nastiness at the Hamilton cast. He accused the cast of being rude and disrespectful, while also calling them overrated and other ridiculous and unnecessary insults that are par for the course for Donald. However, it wasn’t even Donald’s statements that were the most troubling, it was the reaction of his supporters. There is a broad swath of Americans that now believe that it is somehow inappropriate for citizens to dare to speak to an elected official out of turn. This is terrifying.

These people will watch the very same video that other reasonable people watch and see hate and disrespect, not because there actually was hate and disrespect, mind you, but because Donald Trump said that there was hate and disrespect. Even when Governor Mike Pence himself later said he saw absolutely nothing disrespectful about the statement from the Hamilton crew, Donald Trump’s supporters still continue to believe that people who disagree with Trump do not have the fundamental right to express their dissent.

When, not if, the political tables are turned, do they want to be held to the same standard? Are they aware that they just invalidated their own dissent of their political rivals? Are these people even aware that they just invalidated the entire Tea Party movement? I seriously believe that these possibilities is simply outside of their myopic cognitive experience, even though these were the same people that applauded Tim Tebow’s expression of his Faith publicly, yet they somehow find another group exercising their right to free expression offensive? This alone is dangerous.

On Monday, Donald Trump called in members of the press at various media outlets and viciously berated them “off the record“. Once again, his incorrigible supporters applauded this political attack on free press, complaining that the media has somehow become “dishonest“, and they were even encouraged that Donald should go after anyone that he thought criticized him “unfairly“. What they miss is that there is not and never has been any constitutional requirement for honesty, integrity, or even objectivity anywhere in the United States Constitution.

Not in the over two hundreds years of the Republic has the press ever been “objective“, and, in that time, no one in government has ever dared to dictate to the free press what does and does not constitute “truth” or “integrity” until now. The very same rights to free expression that defend the rights of the media to print whatever they wish, as slanted as they wish, are the very same rights to free expression that protect these very words that you are reading now.

Again, when, not if, the political tables are turned, is this really the standard that Trump’s blithely ignorant supporters want to set? Will they clap like seals when it’s a Democratic Socialist dressing down Fox News, Sean Hannity, and Rush Limbaugh for “dishonesty” and lack of “objectivity“? Again, there’s not a doubt in my mind that Trump’s ardent supporters haven’t even begun to consider the consequences of granting this sort of implicit political power to the president.

It’s becoming clearer every day that they don’t want a president, they want a dictator. That will happen over my dead body.

“Sic semper tyrannis.”
-State Motto of Virginia-

The fight for Liberty continues.

 

---

Liberty is For The Win!