A recent House of Representatives vote, held in November, on a resolution (Res 760) expressing solidarity with the long-oppressed people of Cuban in their quest for basic rights appeared to be the type of feel-good gesture that would pass unanimously. There were no monetary or other strings attached to it. It was a symbolic gesture issued largely in response to a Human Rights Watch report issued over the summer.
Instead, 40 Democrats voted against it. Representatives such as Jerry Nadler, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Illian Omar, Ayanna Pressley, Rashida Tlaib, and Maxine Waters, and the rest of the progressive caucus refused to endorse the measure.
Their action was despicable. Whatever differences Americans may have, support for personal freedom should be a unifying factor. Despite that, we should be grateful for how they voted. Any vague misconception that the leftist Democrats who populate the progressive movement and who clearly dominate the leadership of their party, are anything but would-be authoritarian despots can now be totally dispelled.
The true nature of the Progressive Movement is becoming more evident by the hour.
In New York, Black Lives Matter Co-Founder Hawk Newsome has threatened the newly elected mayor of New York City, Eric Adams, with “Riots and Bloodshed” if he merely sought to enforce criminal laws. Eric Adams, by the way, is a black man.
That authoritarian impulse thoroughly infects the Democratic Party leadership. The entire concept of a nation governed by laws is under attack. Rep. Maxine Waters has urged protestors to be more “confrontational.” The left, and their media allies, looked the other way as their storm troopers invaded police stations, attempted to burn federal court houses, set up an “autonomous zone,” burned buildings, looted stores, and attacked passers-by. Senator Schumer introduced a measure to limit the protection of the First Amendment in certain areas. Barack Obama and Joe Biden have used the IRS and the Department of Justice to intimidate those individuals and organizations that peacefully and legally disagree with their policies.
Progressive-dominated media outlets have used every dictatorial strategy to suppress contrary voices. Conservative views are frequently censored on social media sites. Leftist- influenced search engine results omit or relegate moderate to conservative views to obscure back pages.
When parents, during the Covid era, discovered that progressive propaganda was being force-fed to students, they began to dissent. The response by the Biden Administration was rapid. A move was made to call concerned parents “domestic terrorists” and unleash the FBI on them. The leftist strangle-hold on the educational establishment was not to be tolerated.
Megan McArdle, writing in the Atlantic, quotes Dr. Jonathon Haidt, an academic who called himself a longtime liberal turned centrist. “…when we find out that conservatives are underrepresented among us by a factor of more than 100, suddenly everyone finds it quite easy to generate alternate explanations.”
Leftist Democrats utter disregard for the truth and their all-out warfare on any who dares to differ could be seen in the 2016 presidential election. As has now been irrefutably verified by the Durham investigation, a wholly false charge of Russian Collusion was invented against the GOP candidate. Even after that lie had become evident beyond any shadow of a doubt, Pelosi’s House Intelligence Committee continued to push the story, aided by her media allies.
It was a tactic advocated and perfected by Nazi propaganda chief Joseph Goebbels, who famously said “If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it. The lie can be maintained only for such time as the State can shield the people from the political, economic and/or military consequences of the lie. It thus becomes vitally important for the State to use all of its powers to repress dissent, for the truth is the mortal enemy of the lie, and thus by extension, the truth is the greatest enemy of the State.”
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