The Political Realignment of America
Left vs. right is irrelevant -- and red vs. blue is getting there
Greetings, Screamers! I don’t have much time today — it turns out playoff baseball is NOT good for getting any writing (or thinking!) done — but I wanted to take some time to write about the political realignment we’re seeing sweeping across the country, and some possible reasons. But first — congrats to the Royals for advancing to the American League Division Series!!
Since I started paying attention to politics in America, the general theme of the country as been left vs. right, with the left generally standing for the ‘little guy’ and the right being friendlier to businesses and the establishment.
Looking back, I can see that 2004 John Kerry was probably not the noble warrior fighting for the rights of the little guy.
But that was the perception all across the media landscape — which, back then, was really all there was. We had no social media connecting us with real people, everything was delivered through the media filter.
As the years have passed, we’ve seen an incredible shift in the priorities of the parties. Starting with the “third way” of the Clinton era and progressing right through the Biden administration, Democrats are increasingly comfortable sidling up to the rich (and granting them favors) and advocating for endless wars. This left a void — for years, nobody was actually looking out for the anti-war little guy, and now those little guys are slowly shifting to the Republicans.
This is how you end up with Dick Cheney, endorser of Democrats.
But how do you end up with Tulsi Gabbard, endorser of Republicans?
That’s come about because the left — after abandoning their anti-war, “little guy” positions — has also abandoned free speech. (And if “attacking American democracy” means anything at all, it means “attacking the basis of American democracy” — free speech.)
Check out how Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez declares free speech to be “weapon of war”!
My apologies, that’s former New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern explaining how the government can’t beat climate change unless they censor the people who don’t believe the government can beat climate change. My mistake — these tyrants all look alike.
Ah, here we are:
“It’s one thing to have differing opinions, but it’s another thing entirely to just say things that are false.”
Both of these ladies are “forgetting” that governments around the world censored VERIFIABLY TRUE INFORMATION during covid. They censored JOKES during covid. And yes, they censored differing opinions during covid.
And since then they’ve done it with every big issue of the day — no doubt including government-led censorship! And Adam Schiff is publicly acknowledging they’re going to continue doing it through the 2024 election.
This has caused many who were formerly on the left to flee Democrats like a sinking ship. After all, “old” political divides only made sense because both parties were (generally) grounded in Constitutional principles. When one party publicly and proudly jettisons those Constitutional principles, its members are going to question if they still belong in that party. (Just as many Democrats did after Obama continued the wars for his 8 years.)
This is how we end with a “diverse” group of speakers at the Rescue the Republic rally. People who are concerned about free speech come from all corners of the political spectrum — because the corners are where the censorship starts. Where once the conversation (and the divide) was about the details of policy, now it’s shifted to the more fundamental questions of what it even means to be “American”.
And increasingly, the Democrats find themselves opposing free speech and either clueless about the extent of the censorship complex or lying about it — either one is disqualifying for me:
Tim Walz shaking his head as JD Vance calls for both parties to reject censorship is a perfect illustration of the situation — as is the clueless reference to ‘fire in a crowded theater’.
We weren’t thrown off social media for inciting an imminent threat — we were thrown off social media because we (and the government’s own data) disagreed with the government’s actions.
But as JD Vance points out, criticizing the government is the right of every American. In fact….it’s harder to think of something MORE American than telling an overbearing government to shove it.
Let’s hope that’s exactly what we do this November.
Before I go, I want to drop off this petition link created by our own suannee! Here’s the opening text:
If you agree, sign today! (And read her guest post about the issue here!)
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The media censorship is circular and hard to fight. I hope the supremes come down on it, because fighting “everyone loves censorship except Nazis” is remarkably hard from the citizenry.
In a way, I find the Kerry clip unnerving *because* he’s so irrelevant now. I doubt anyone is sending him out to push this message or any other. Him saying this must reflect how mainstream and top-of-mind this crap is in those circles.
Censorship is bouncing around their echo chamber, getting louder. They’ll unleash it on us full strength like it’s the most natural thing in the world.