According to a poll taken at
the end of the First 100 Days, the overwhelming majority of Yanks credited the
President with openness to differing viewpoints. It would be interesting to see
whether people still feel that way, in light of the reactions by Obama and his
henchmen to the criticism and concerns, in town-hall meetings and other forums
of opinion, over his edict—I mean, proposal—for health-care reform. The
Administration and other Democrats have accused those who oppose micro-managing
medicine of (whatever is meant by) being “un-American,” of fear- and
"evil-mongering," of having a covert agenda, and of telling half-truths
and outright lies: in summary, all the things of which those who promote the
government takeover of medicine are themselves guilty. Not content with slander
and libel, the Oval Office has
resorted even to Gestapo tactics, urging Obama's subjects—I mean, fellow
citizens—to "report" subversives who dare to say anything
"fishy" about his health-care plan.
Obamaphile intolerance of
dissent did not begin because of the attempt at reform of medical care. The
White House, allied Congressmen, and other spendthrifts already had calumniated
the participants in TEA Parties; the Director of Homeland Security had
categorized anyone who disagrees with Obama policy as an extremist and a
potential (or actual) terrorist; Injustice Department officials had vowed to hunt
down “all actors” in the killing of late-term abortionist George Tiller, as if
there were evidence that this incident had resulted from (as Secretary of State
Clinton might say) a vast right-wing conspiracy; et cetera.
Nor is the Left's general
intolerance of dissent coeval with the transformation of the Usa into an Obama
Nation. The radical movements Communism and National Socialism (see We Have Met the Enemy, and They Are
Ourselves) have long been synonymous with
totalitarianism, and "totalitarianism lite" (see the list of domanisms, below) received its better-established nickname "political
correctness" in the late 1980's (although it had already existed for some
years prior to then). Laws and codes ostensibly directed against
"hate," but actually intended to suppress resistance to "gay
rights," "reverse" discrimination, and other left-of-center
social-engineering schemes, had been a dream and often a reality for decades
before the writing of the Matthew Shepard Hate Crimes Prevention Act.
Pro-abortionists, who initially portrayed fœticide as a necessary evil, were,
by the 1990's, acting as if merely having to defend their position on the issue
amounted to a violation of their constitutional rights. In 1996, when President
(Bill) Clinton attended a funeral service, a television-news camera recorded
him laughing, but then, upon noticing that he was on camera, affecting to wipe
away a tear; left-wingers, demonstrating that they consider even objective
fact-finding equal to sedition, became indignant not at Clinton but at the man
who had taken the film. In 1993, they spouted claptrap about Congressional
"gridlock," as if Republicans (who were then in the minority anyway) had some sort of
obligation not to oppose Clintonian legislation.
Despite all this, leftists have always presented themselves as champions of liberty. In truth, they are not enemies of censorship at all; they just want exclusive rights to it.
