The Left Embraces Blacklisting

My fate is sealed: I will never get my own TV show and will probably never be hired again in my life. One google search of my name reveals that I have spent the last 6 years involved with conservative and Republican politics, have organized and run a Tea Party group, and have given voice to a variety of opinions on a wide range of topics in articles and interviews published all over the web. The web is a cyber galaxy of information and connectivity that allows for full expression of the individual in the cyber marketplace of ideas. There is no question that the World Wide Web has enhanced so many aspects of our lives. But the very same platform that gave rise to this information highway -- this liberating agent -- can also be used by both private and public concerns as a weapon against the individual.

We all know what happens to law-abiding citizens when they express their private opinions outside of work: left wing zealots dig up whatever “dirt” they can find on them -- usually related to race, sexual orientation, religion -- publish these findings on the internet, and demand any business arrangements with the alleged “extremists” be canceled forthwith. Many of us are fighting back, but it will take millions to have an impact. Boycotting the witch hunters is just one tool in our toolbox -- and it is ineffective unless we inform these companies that we oppose their actions and will no longer use/purchase their products/services. We can now add HGTV to our list of companies to boycott. David and Jason Benham recently had their HGTV show canceled when the blog Right Wing Watch discovered that they are Christians (oh, the horror) and are pro-life and pro-traditional marriage (high crimes and misdemeanors, doncha know). It won’t be long before people who hold these views will be hauled off by PC mobs and stoned to death. Who knows, one day their children might even be kidnapped and sold into slavery for the simple crime of being Christian or holding opinions that differ from the monsters in charge, holding the guns. The body count in this war keeps adding up -- the Benhams, Brendan Eich, Phil Robertson, Ayaan Hirsi Ali, the St. Patrick’s Day parade, Chick-Fil-A. And those are just the high profile cases. Countless others -- regular people -- live in fear of their religious or political views being discovered by their employers, the vendors they use, their clients and patients. At first blush, one might think most of these battles are only being waged in the private sphere, but don’t be naïve. As we have seen with the IRS scandal, the government is clearly targeting individuals for their views or conscience -- auditing them simply because of the political groups they have supported or denying conservative organizations a certain tax status simply because they are conservative. It’s the other side of the same coin. If over half of this country is pro-smart marriage, pro-life, supports the enforcement of our immigration laws, advocates for limited government, supports wages being determined by a free market not a centralized economy, and opposes Islamic extremism and terrorism, then over half of this country’s working population is dispensable should their employers -- public or private -- discover these personal views and choose to act on it. I know we aren’t supposed to draw comparisons with the Holocaust, but really, is this any different than the early days of Nazi Germany? Jewish people weren’t carted off to concentration camps and exterminated at the beginning of the Third Reich. There was a gradual build up to the Final Solution and it started by restricting the movement of the Jewish people and their participation in community activities. It wasn’t long before they were silenced and not allowed to congregate. In no time, Jews were summarily dismissed from their jobs at universities, Jewish doctors were no longer allowed to practice, and businesses owned by Jews were forced to close down. Jews lived in fear of speaking out and practicing their faith and, anyone sympathetic to the Jewish population or devoted to their Jewish friends, lived in the same fear. The high crimes of Europe’s Jewry was simply being Jewish -- adhering to a faith that had different traditions, beliefs and values than those designated as acceptable by the ruling party. Does this not send chills up your spine? Granted, conservatives haven’t been exterminated -- yet— -- but, as I mentioned above, the metaphorical stoning and lynching by PC mobs of anyone with conservative viewpoints is already underway. When the mob becomes hysterical and single-minded, violence follows. Arm them with guns, money, political power and a propaganda arm in the form of the press, and presto! Instant mass persecution. People lived in this kind of fear behind the Iron Curtain during the Cold War. Ironic that we fought and defeated that kind of totalitarianism only to see it wash up on our shores a few decades later. When does left wing zealotry in the US today reach the levels of fanaticism we saw with the Nazis or currently witness with Islamic jihadists? Is telling a little girl she can’t go to school really so different than telling a young boy he must attend a school assembly on global warming or homosexual acceptance and, if he doesn’t, he will be ostracized or marked an unexcused absence? If you defame Mohammed and lose a hand, is it any different than donating $1000 to support traditional marriage and then losing your job for it? Admittedly, the punishments meted out by established, experienced, totalitarian regimes are more horrific than losing a job or alienation by one’s community, but they all had a beginning that resembles what is happening right now in the land of the free and brave. Truth be told, I have no desire to have my own TV show, but I wasn’t kidding when I said I will never be hired (except by another conservative). Conservatives must be prepared at any moment to lose a job, a client, a patient, a contract or business opportunity because of their religious, political or moral views. When applying for jobs, we will have to endure the equivalent of a full body cavity search -- only it will be a thorough examination of our religious and political views with the “thought police” combing through our conversations, phone calls, emails, and blog posts. They’ve already effectively banned some of “our” books, but I wonder how long before they start burning them: The Bible, Milton Friedman’s Capitalism and Freedom, Friedrich Hayek’s The Road to Serfdom, The Federalist Papers, William F. Buckley’s God and Man at Yale. It is what we think, write and discuss that is the true enemy of their will to power. At first they destroy our ability to assemble, discuss and disseminate our ideas. Then, it becomes more expedient to destroy the host for those ideas, values, beliefs and principles. I hate to be so grim, but like Daniel, cannot ignore the writing on the wall. In the end, I guess if it’s ok for left wingers to hire only fellow travelers and discriminate against anyone who doesn’t adhere to their set of beliefs, then it would be equally acceptable for right wingers to do the same, correct? Not in a pig’s eye. We have seen what happens when bakers or photographers who are pro-traditional marriage refuse to work at a gay marriage. And the outcry against these craftsmen was louder than the outcry for the little girls kidnapped in Nigeria. With judicial enforcement. As more and more of us are precluded from making a living, we will either go on the dole and the join the ranks of the unemployed and government subsidized or we will be forced to hide who we are, what we believe, and where we worship. Or we will find ways to earn a living doing business amongst ourselves, a sort of underground. We’ll have to commit our books to memory before they burn them and live in the dark shadows…always in fear of being discovered. This will be our destiny if we aren’t willing to fight now, to stand our ground and hold firm to our beliefs no matter the consequences, as did Brendan Eich, the Benham brothers and the Robertson family; strike legally when we can like Hobby Lobby; and support each other as we did with Chick-Fil-A. If we stick our heads in the sand now, we just make it easier for the left to cut them off.