Of Protests and Name Calling
Once upon a time Americans debated public policy in passionate, yet civil discourse. The Constitutional Convention that founded the Republic, and the Lincoln-Douglas debates fourscore years later exemplify that great tradition.
No more.
The American Left has abandoned reasoned discourse – largely because its ideas have proven to be abject failures – in favor of throwing violent public tantrums, candy-coated by the legacy news media as protests, coupled with name calling designed to cancel those with whom they disagree.
With public push-back against woke ideology growing more intense by the day the Left is seeing its socialistic policy goals slipping from their grasp. As a result a sort of hysteria has set in as they double down on protest and name-calling.
During the COVID-19 pandemic many parents saw for the first time what government-run schools were teaching their children. They did not like what they saw. That spawned a new wave of activism as parents fought back against everything from Critical Race Theory to the promotion of so-called “gender affirming” transitions.
Among the parental rights groups that have developed is Moms for Liberty. Their advocacy on behalf of their own children has been highly effective. It has panicked the education establishment which is seeing a credible challenge to its ability to indoctrinate Leftist policies and values into students.
So successful has been Moms for Liberty that the far-Left Southern Poverty Law Center (SPRC), an extremist group posing as a civil rights watchdog, has designated the parental organization as a “hate” group. The SPRC’s stick is to hang the “hate” label on any group that opposes its far Left agenda and, of course, the legacy media plays along pretending it is somehow a fair arbiter of “hate.” In fact, the SPRC hates so many other organizations it should declare itself to be a hate group, which is in fact what it is.
When not name-calling the go-to tactic of the Left is to protest. A combination of radicalized activists and paid agitators stand at the ready to protest any government action, political candidate, or conservative speaker with whom they disagree – which is to say all of them.
Protestors are aided and abetted in their tactic by the legacy media and frequently by so-called institutions of higher learning. Swimmer Riley Gaines who has become the public face of opposition to biological males competing in women’s sports, Daily Wire commentator Michael Knowles, and podcaster Cabot Philips were recently scheduled to participate in a debate on such issues at the University of Pittsburgh. Note: a debate, an exchange of views, not a speech.
Protestors descended upon the Oakland campus becoming violent to the point of setting off an incendiary device and resulting in a substantial police response. The University of Pittsburgh then decided to bill the conservative organizations that organized the debate for the security required to quell the violence of the protestors.
So now not only are conservative voices frequently barred from campus, then subjected to violent confrontation when they do appear, but are now being charged for the lawless behavior of protestors. All of which is designed to stifle the First Amendment free speech rights of conservative students. This at taxpayer funded institutions.
The Left also thrives on misdirection and misperception. A currently in vogue talking point is that Democracy itself is at risk because of the rise in voices opposing its agenda. The events of January 6, 2021 at the U.S. Capitol have become a rallying cry. And while those events were certainly disgraceful, they were an anomaly. Far more frequent have been Left-wing disruptions of governmental proceedings.
In Tennessee recently far-Left lawmakers actually protested on the state House floor leading to their expulsion from the chamber – an action which triggered even more protests. In April insurrectionists shut down the Montana state capitol in protest over the censure of a transgendered lawmaker.
And, of course, who can forget the Black Lives Matter riots that broke out in cities across the nation in 2020. Again, the legacy news media portrayed the protests as “mostly peaceful” while the business districts and neighborhoods of our cities went up in flames.
As the 2024 Presidential Election campaign gets underway the nation is divided on a wide range of issues both economic and cultural. It is crucial that conservatives not cave into the Left’s tactics. Ignore the name calling. Disregard the noise created by protestors. Talk past them to the vast majority of Americans who are hungry for real solutions to the many challenges facing our nation.
(Lowman S. Henry is Chairman & CEO of the Lincoln Institute and host of the weekly Lincoln Radio Journal and American Radio Journal. His e-mail address is [email protected].)
Permission to reprint is granted provided author and affiliation are cited.
