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Quack, Quack
By Kate Burch
The word, “canard” in French, means “a duck.” In English, the
word means a baseless rumor. Since Donald Trump’s election, we
have heard much quacking from those who object to his being the
President-elect. These people say that they fear that Muslims,
people of color, and people with sexual proclivities that are out of
the mainstream are going to be targets of violence by Trump supporters
now unleashed and granted license to act out their malicious impulses.
Professional journalists check respectability at the door when they
toss about vile imprecations about Trump: “he’s a racist…a white
supremacist…a misogynist…an Islamophobe…a homophobe—while avoiding any
pretense of presenting credible evidence for such accusations; a
balanced comparison of candidates; or focusing on issues or policy
differences. People who voted for Trump have been painted as
bigots and “haters” by influential journalists, pundits, and
celebrities.
We read of university students requiring exemption from classes or
delay of exams because they were turned into emotional basket cases by
the election results. “Safe spaces,” even Pla-Doh and puppies,
were provided to assist these tender little souls in coming to terms
with the imminent apocalypse. University leaders support and
encourage this flight from reality and maturity and do violence to the
First Amendment and the value of lively discourse by collaborating in
preventing their students’ exposure to any voices that would challenge
their shared prejudice.
First of all, let’s consider where the much-feared violence is actually
occurring. “Protests” by anti-Trump forces have resulted in
considerable property damage; beatings; terrorism; and at least one
shooting. Cold weather and riot-fatigue have diminished these
displays, but we may see more of them at Inauguration time.
Little or nothing of this sort of thing has occurred on the other
side.
It’s not just a biased media, acknowledged by almost every thinking
human being, even in the media, to be essentially a cheerleader for
“progressive” policy and big government. The growth in size,
scope, and power of the central government itself leads to the
development and imposition of a “network of small complicated rules,
minute and uniform, through which the most original minds and the most
energetic characters cannot penetrate.” (Alexis deTocqueville,
“Democracy in America”) This network, what we call “political
correctness,” keeps citizens “in perpetual childhood.” It also
leads directly to political persecution. Think of the
re-education camps and forced “psychiatric” hospitalizations for
dissenters in communist regimes. Think, also, of the political
persecution of dissenters by IRS audits and the calls for actual
prosecution of climate “deniers” by the left in our own country.
We are living in a nation and a time in which the forces of
progressivism have made great strides in their campaign to overturn
traditional standards of morality, traditional institutions, and the
notion that one may advance on the basis of merit and then be entitled
to his accomplishments. Slander and persecution of those who
retain those traditional values and ways are given the gloss of “social
justice” thus fanning the flames of division and hatred.
Now that we have a president-elect who is working hard—already—to put
in place reasonable policies that are pro-growth and pro-American, the
little ducklings are knocked seriously off their game, and their shock
and awe are expressed in primal screams of rage.
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