“Once a government is committed to the principle of silencing the voice of opposition, it has only one way to go, and that is down the path of increasingly repressive measures, until it becomes a source of terror to all its citizens and creates a country where everyone lives in fear.” – Harry S. Truman
We have seen that before, and never more spectacularly than in Truman’s lifetime. He observed the actions of three socialist governments — the Soviet Union, Nazi Germany, and Fascist Italy — over the prime of his lifetime. All three became a source of terror to its citizens and created countries where everyone lives in fear. It was what Rudyard Kipling warned about in his poem The Old Issue a generation earlier. In it, his forecast of the king “under any name”:
He shall mark our goings, question whence we came,
Set his guards about us, as in Freedom’s name.He shall take a tribute, toll of all our ware;
He shall change our gold for arms—arms we may not bear.He shall break his judges if they cross his word;
He shall rule above the Law calling on the Lord.He shall peep and mutter; and the night shall bring
Watchers ’neath our window, lest we mock the King—
What Truman probably never imagined was we would see a United States government attempt to follow that same path. We now have Kipling’s king — under the name of President attempting exactly that.
A politicized Department of Justice is hunting down enemies of the state in the form of pro-life activists, parents concerned about the sexualization of their children at public schools, and supporters of his presidential opponent. All are now labeled “domestic terrorists.”
The government is colluding with big tech to silence views contrary to the official government positions; preventing them from being voiced on social media platforms. Dissent from “accepted” positions on public health, transgender issues, vote fraud, and the mental acuity of the President are censored by social media with the collusion of the government. Gun control is a priority of this government as is increased taxation.
Yet all is not lost. The censors are being challenged in the courts, with people fired or canceled for unpopular views being restored to their jobs. Yesterday, Elon Musk took over Twitter, firing its chief censor. He is opening the platform to all opinions. Most importantly, a week from this upcoming Tuesday, voters get their opportunity to weigh in. They can replace their elected representatives, sending the ones favoring silencing political opponents with ones favoring free debate of the issues.
That is our last best chance of peacefully reining in a tyrannical federal government. Some say even that might not work. Even so, it needs to be tried. Get out and vote. Get your friends and relations who support freedom to vote. (I am not advocating getting friends and relations who support tyranny too drunk to vote over the next week or so, but your mileage might vary.) Take the opportunity offered. You really won’t like the alternative.
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