Conservatives Can't Be Silenced

The left is legendary for its protests and ability to challenge, organize, and sow discord.

For generations we’ve seen marches, burning bras, and human barricades galore. But when Americans question a democratically — and arguably leftist-controlled — government, freedom of assembly must be more than simply discredited, the left responds. It must be stopped.

This year alone, we’ve seen progressives shift from downplaying the discontented mood of the nation to flat-out panic.

It started with the tea parties. As thousands gathered across the country, the far left sniffed at their concerns, and the mainstream media failed to acknowledge their growing popularity. Many discounted their effectiveness and alleged, absurdly, that Fox News was funding them.

So what did these “champions of free speech” do? They tried to silence it, of course. The Obama administration was so threatened that the truth would take hold that the Department of Homeland Security issued a memo to first responders to be on the lookout for “radical right-wing extremism.”

No memo like this was issued when MoveOn.org members were showing up at town halls in 2003 and 2004 to voice their rage over the war in Iraq.

Congressional Democrats, meanwhile, tried desperately to revive the Fairness Doctrine in an attempt to silence the most effective tool of the right: talk radio. The effort failed, but believe me, they will try again. And let’s not forget the left’s full-fledged nervous breakdown after the August town halls to discuss healthcare reform. Majority Leader Harry Reid called the voices of upset constituents “loud and shrill,” while House Speaker Nancy Pelosi hallucinated that these protesters were carrying swastikas.

Sen. Barbara Boxer of California claimed that the men and women were “too dressed up” to be legit, while the White House press secretary laughed off what he called “manufactured anger.”

Such arrogance on the left exposes appalling hypocrisy. Isn’t Barack Obama the original outrage manufacturer in chief? Ironically, he doesn’t like to be questioned, and he particularly despises any type of opposition. What would Obama’s outrage Sherpa, Saul Alinsky, say about all this?

According to a profile of Obama in the left-leaning New Republic: “At the heart of the Alinsky method is . . . ‘agitation’ — making someone angry enough about the rotten state of his life that he agrees to take action to change it; or, as Alinsky described the job, to ‘rub raw the sores of discontent.’” In fact, one of Obama’s former colleagues in the community-organizing field described him as “the best student he ever had. He was a natural, the undisputed master of agitation . . . he could be aggressive and confrontational.”

But I guess agitation is a good thing only when it’s against the skin of a Republican. The left will continue to try to silence any form of dissent. To them I say good luck and get used to it. We can’t be silenced.