Perhaps memory fails, but through the gaslighting din of today’s Pravda media I vaguely recall the antinomian Left persistently refusing to abide our country’s constitution, its duly elected and appointed leaders, and its duly enacted laws, rules, and regulations.
Sanctuary cities, “resist,” “illegitimate,” “orange man bad,” “Russian collusion,” “peaceful protests” that left 30 dead and neighborhoods burning, etc. – all are evanescent recollections evincing the Leftists’ lockstep non-compliance and weaponized lawlessness.
Through these mystic chords of malevolence, what emerges is the Left’s martial discipline. Its order of battle set, the Left propagandizes in unison and marches in concert until arriving, lockstep, over the prostate form of its latest victim – be it a constitutional principle or a cancelled dissident.
Especially in times of national crisis (the Left’s preferred time to strike), the Right glimpses the totality and enormity of the Left’s coordination, such as was witnessed in the 2020 election. What often ensues on the Right is a sense of outraged futility, its manifestations running a gamut of politically self-denying and self-destructive behaviors.
While it is true that victory usually requires one to have a complete picture and a commensurate measure of respect for one’s adversary, the Right’s reaction to the lockstep Left isn’t it. Standing before the primordial majesty of a tsunami, best to stop gawking and get the hell out of its way. The singular thing those possessed of a survival instinct never do is embrace the wave.
Yet, the Right seems bent upon being the compliant architect of its death.
Recently, I was invited to attend the gala for a decidedly not Left-wing organization, the primary goal of which I have long been a supporter. (For the record: these days I almost never attend such events, as I am a recovering politician.) Nonetheless, my friend, Tim, had a table and, his rolodex being exhausted in the search for a respectable guest, he invited me. There was one caveat: the event was in Washington, D.C., which meant a proof of vaccination was required to attend.
I declined.
While I am vaccinated, I oppose vaccine mandates as an egregious infringement upon the rights of a free people. As a result, despite my support for this worthy organization, I could not comply and, thus, be complicit in furthering the arbitrary, capricious, and unscientific vaccine mandates of the Leftist controlled swamp.
Yet it must not be overlooked that this organization was forcing its members into making the Hobbesian choice of submitting to the vaccine passport diktat or refraining from attending the event. Succinctly, this was a classic instance of the Right (unwittingly or otherwise) serving as the Left’s compliance officer.
My friend was understanding, as he had the same reservations. We both bemoaned the fact that the mandates were enacted to hinder non-Leftist organizations from holding their fundraisers in the District of Columbia or, alternately, force their members – from across the country – to comply with the swamp’s mandate. The Left believes – and with good reason – that once one becomes accustomed to an infringement upon one’s rights, one will be more amenable to future and further infringements, be it in the swamp or elsewhere. Such non-Leftist organizations’ compliance also rewards the very Leftist elected officials who issued and the Leftist voters who supported the mandates, rather than providing a concrete impetus for change – i.e., the loss of commercial, tax, and tourist revenues.
Thus, I advocated such non-Leftist organizations refuse to submit and hold and/or move their events out of the District of Columbia – or any other autocratic governmental units. For example, of course, local pro-life groups in states, such as New York and New Jersey, that have ghoulishly expanded their abortion laws cannot move their events to Florida. But national pro-life organizations should never patronize and reward these states for enacting such abominable legislation. Equally, a state-wide pro-Life organization shouldn’t hold their fundraisers in one of the state’s bastions of abortion advocacy. These elementary guidelines can apply to a host of issues where constitutional rights and personal liberties are under continual assault by autocratic Left-wing governments. And if an organization’s leadership doesn’t know the locus of said attacks, it is time for new leadership.
In the present instance, the pandemic commenced in early 2020; thus, non-Leftist organizations have had more than sufficient time to plan and/or move their events to less autocratic, anti-science municipalities and states – i.e., those not run by Democrats. After all, no one should have been surprised by the District of Columbia’s new edicts.
My friend, Tim, agreed, though he conceded the economic impact of moving the event. Based upon his personal experience, his solution going forward was for non-Leftist organizations to insist that contracts with prospective venues contain a force majeure clause:
“The pandemic was a time when the unexpected happened which is why you should always plan for the unexpected in legal agreements. [For our clients] we had included a force majeure clause in our vendors contracts which [means that] in the event of an Act of God…the client was relieved of the liability for holding the event. This [force majeure clause] overrides any cancelation clause and voids a contract with full refund for any deposits.
“Too many times I have heard, ‘well that will never happen so don’t worry about it’ or ‘that our contract is standard and can’t be edited.’ I say baloney. It is our job to protect the welfare of our clients as best we can, and that means never taking for granted unfair clauses of a contract. Be vigilant and never accept anything that doesn’t pass the fairness test.”
True, this approach will only recoup the overhead expenses of an event; it will not compensate for any lost contributions related to the event’s postponement and/or relocation. But lost contributions will already occur – and likely be larger – due to a government’s vaccine passport mandate required for attendance, especially because the organization’s members are predominantly and/or exclusively non-Leftist.
And, yes, going forward no organization can feign ignorance of the distinct probability that a Leftist dominated governmental entity will impose further arbitrary, anti-science, and, as Omicron has evinced, impotent vaccine mandates to “slow the spread.”
It bears repeating that this is not an isolated instance involving vaccine mandates. The Left has organized state and corporate boycotts of those Republican led governmental entities that have protected the unborn and enhanced voter integrity. In a notorious example, at the behest of the deceitful Left, Major League Baseball stripped its All-Star game away from the majority-minority municipality of Atlanta. Meanwhile, the Right is holding galas in the vaccine passport-mandating swamp.
Perhaps, memory does fail. But what of the Right’s fight or flight instinct? For, as the lemming Left’s tsunami crests and leaden legs lock before the mountainous, majestic implement of impending destruction, is it too much for the Right to recall the words of my friend, Tim: “Fight because you must!”
And, for Heaven’s sake, stop bumbling beneath tsunamis.
As he describes himself: The product of a misspent youth, the Hon. Thaddeus G. McCotter (M.C., Ret.) is a guitarist, author, occasional radio co-host, and recovering politician. He is a former U.S. Congressman from Michigan having represented that state’s 11th Congressional district from 2003-2012.