The First Amendment – the freedom of speech, religion and assembly – hangs like ripe fruit; and the clammy hands of collectivist autocrats can’t wait to pluck it off Liberty’s tree.
For nearly a century a primary objective – in a long list of really bad objectives – of the radical left in Europe and in the U.S. has been to silence all traditional voices of opposition, eradicate orthodox Christianity from public life, and to crush individualism.
They have made a lot of headway.
Europe, whose commitment to the ideals of free speech, religion, and assembly have always been paper thin at best, are now aggressively marginalizing these rights even further in reaction to its self-induced disaster, the invasion of over a million North African and Middle Eastern migrants (nearly 70% of whom are unaccompanied young Muslim men).
Many governments, led by the example of the former East German communist and now German Chancellor, Angela Merkel, have vigorously strong armed the news media to stop or “shape” reporting, and have refused to allow the police to detail the extensive ongoing violence, riots, criminal activity, sex crimes, and community upheaval created by the invasion. Social media is being screened for “hate speech” directed against the migrants and Islam in some countries, and offenders are being “warned,” or banned from sites; while a massive propaganda campaign has been directed by individual governments and the EU to denounce any opposition to its policies, and to caution against unlawful “bigotry.”
And, many Europeans seem more pleased than wistful at the prospect of the feeble, marginalized Christianity of Europe being supplanted by Islam.
Not to be outdone here in the U.S., on top of the tens of millions of unassimilated immigrants already in the country, the President wants to bring in up to a million Muslim refugees, even while we learn this week about more native American’s laid off by U.S. companies, being replaced by newly hired immigrants on H1-B visas at a fraction of the wages.
Just like Europe, if you question any of this you are branded a bigot and hater. The full weight of the government, the trans-nationals and major corporations and the professional refugee resettlement operators, are pushing the meme of how good unlimited, uncontrolled immigration is for the country; and, of course, all of them are directly benefiting by either the collapsing middle income wages, or the massively increased government spending, or both.
In addition, America has overturned the 5,000 year old definition of marriage by a single vote on the Supreme Court on a single day, and there is a massive government and corporate funded propaganda machine at work to mash the idea of same sex goodness deep into the cultural landscape – and if you object, they are coming after you. Ask the former CEO of Mozilla, Brendan Eich, among many others, who lost his job after the mob discovered that he had contributed to a pro-traditional marriage organization several years before becoming CEO.
People who think boys should pee and shower in one place and girls in another, are – within the space of mere months – now bigots; and if you say otherwise, Target will evidently cancel your shopping privileges.
Corporate America has learned the lesson; shut up, pay up and go along or you too will be buried in an avalanche of outrage over your lack of inclusiveness, whatever that is exactly.
You can’t just agree to disagree; you must approve affirmatively.
The U.S. also has epidemic insanity overtaking its colleges and universities, where “black lives matter,” and others not. Outspoken radicals and self-proclaimed Marxists (the old Occupy crowd) are organized and newly activated, and don’t even pretend they don’t want violence. No one has rights, except this crowd. Any speaker to the political right of Che is viciously attacked and not allowed to speak on campuses that supposedly support intellectual inquiry.
Administrators at our universities have cravenly encouraged all of this by doing nothing, while the media have largely ignored it, in the most effective form of censorship possible.
The government, for its part, has the IRS categorizing “conservatives” and “religious Christian extremists” for special attention and its media watchdog, the Federal Communications Commission, is itching to regulate the internet and right-wing, non-inclusive radio shows, all under the guise of protecting free speech.
However, the First Amendment is not only the primary target for destruction by the radicals and secularists, it is also the primary weapon for those of us who seek to revive the West, and to stand against tyrants and collectivists.
The fury of the left is directed at the First Amendment because it is embedded in the DNA of free people, and with it there is always the promise of God’s redemption, and the revival of a dying culture.
As long as free speech stands there can be reasoned opposition to counter the monologue that is inherent in any form of collectivism; the high purposes of the Judeo-Christian ethic are a siren call to soul of mankind when heard; and the freedom to assemble as civic, religious or political groups, insures that monopolies on the culture are harder to achieve and maintain.
Right now, it appears reason has lost to the mob across the West, where it is proposed we replace God’s morality with secular, man-made values, enforced by an all-powerful “progressive” state – about which our President spoke so glowingly this week while in Europe.
As usual, he’s wrong. We are witnessing the gathering storm that promises a world of unimaginable chaos if we do not return to the safe harbor that liberty always provides. Human freedom, human worth and dignity, and individual prosperity are found in the pages of a 238 year old document based in large part on a 3,000 year old Book.
Now, we just need a few leaders who remember it as well.
