Targeting free speech; Dr. Seuss inspires
It should not surprise anyone to find out that suppressing the speech of opponents has been one of the reprehensible tactics of the political left. They’ve found over the decades that whenever conservative ideas begin to find receptive ears and minds, silencing the purveyors of those ideas can provide the left the supremacy denied by open and fair debate. They’ve tried to re-impose the so-called “Fairness Doctrine” via the FCC, and attempted (sometimes successfully) to intimidate sponsors and advertisers away from conservative talk shows. They repeatedly, endlessly castigate opponents as racists, or haters (of fill-in-the-blank victim group) or far-right-kook-fringe types—all to de-legitimatize coherent, principled, well-thought-out positions on issues facing Americans. There’s the incomprehensible vilification directed at the Tea Party movement and the conservative Koch brothers (whose financial support of groups like Americans for Prosperity is literally dwarfed by union money).
In 2008, supporters of Barack Obama in Missouri, who happened to be public prosecutors, threatened legal repercussions against stations that ran ads attacking Obama. Michigan Democratic Rep. Gary Peters, running for the U.S. Senate, has threatened the broadcast licenses of stations that run ads criticizing him. “Over at salon.com, Fred Jerome imagines what it would be like to nationalize—have the government take over—Fox News.
“And of course evidence continues to accumulate that high Internal Revenue Service officials denied approval to conservative groups in order to suppress political speech.” (Michael Barone, 2/23) That barefaced abuse of power deserves far more attention than I will give it here. However, Dem. Rep. Elijah Cummings created a spectacle after former IRS employee Lois Lernor (who resigned under fire) took the Fifth Amendment 11 times to avoid self-incrimination. Cummings can be quite the political bully.
Catherine Engelbrecht testified of her experiences before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee. “I am Chairwoman of True the Vote, a nonprofit election integrity organization (and) the Founder of King Street Patriots, a citizen-led liberty group …” Among other attempts at intimidation, she described how Rep. Cummings demanded information already being provided to the IRS. “Hours after sending letters, he would appear on cable news and publicly defame me and my organization”, which prompted a formal complaint by Ms. Engelbrecht to the House Office of Congressional Ethics requesting a full investigation.
“I do not like this Uncle Sam. I do not like his health care scam. I do not like these dirty crooks, or how they lie and cook the books. I do not like when Congress steals, I do not like their crony deals. I do not like this spying man, I do not like, ‘Oh, Yes we can.’ I do not like this spending spree, we’re smart, we know there’s nothing free. I do not like reporters’ smug replies when I complain about their lies. I do not like this kind of hope, and we won’t take it, nope, nope, nope.” (Sarah Palin, at the Conservative Political Action Conference)
Her pithy Dr. Seuss take-off prompted my rarely used rhyming talents:
I do not like the tax man’s plan,
to put the Tea Party in the can,
I do not like Obama preaching,
that it’s bad to spend our money teaching
voters of the Founder’s way,
to keep our freedom, guns and say
on phony, failing schemes for health care,
belittling us with an insulting scare.
I do not like the Democrat despot,
telling me what I can and cannot
do with my own hard-earned bread,
that I should have some sense of dread,
that people living on the dole,
will tell us that our only role
is to meekly, gladly send money in,
to subsidize all their sin and kin.
I do not like the leftist plot,
to say to takers we will not
deprive you of one single jot,
of other people’s money bought
with promises thin and wide,
that there’s no end to earners hide,
from which a pound of flesh is pried;
under threat of jail and fines,
the taxpayer knows the fruits of crime,
are regretfully, disrespectfully defined:
Telling people to support themselves,
and not look to others to stock their shelves.
I think Tea Party Patriots give,
a message with which we all can live:
Exercise great care and caution,
when contemplating silly notions,
that there’s endless room within the cart,
even as fewer pull with heart;
that taking from Peter to give to Paul,
assures us only that Paul will take all,
all that’s offered with no call
to eventually formulate a plan,
to behave like a grown woman or man,
and upon one’s own two feet to stand,
and earn with one’s own sweaty hand
using a rediscovered work ethic,
one’s ability to avoid subsidies public,
that only erode the will,
to use one’s earnings to pay the bill.
Let us not pay notice or heed,
to utopian dreamers wont to plead,
that because our taxes support the deserving,
we should fork over another serving,
never asking uncomfortable queries,
over whether the redistributionist fairies,
will ever decide they’ve spent enough loot,
and finally give some moochers the boot.
Final note: I heard somewhere that Dan Quayle is asking to have his intellectual reputation back; when he gave an incorrect spelling for “potato” he was only using the misspelled “potatoe” on the cue card from a teacher. Obama had no such excuse when he was in front of a crowd and cameras and, to Aretha Franklin’s face, misspelled the word, “R-S-P-E-C-T.” We on the right have known for about 6 years that, without his Teleprompters, Barack Obama is a sub-par intellect and dullard. Admit it, liberals.
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