Many of us have said that this recent election was a turning point for the United States. That phrase is often been used to describe many elections especially when the office of the president of the United States is up for grab; Understandably then, when someone says the election is a significant turning point, many people don't pay attention. But the events of not only the past four years but especially in the last few weeks have proven that this election is living up to and possibly exceeding the billing.
The most disturbing trend is the open censorship of conservative voices. The Facebook, Google, Twitter monster has banned not only President Trump, but many conservative voices and has removed posts on individuals' pages that have come from conservative news voices. My own page has been one of those.
This trend started on college and University campuses around the country. For over a decade I have reported on the silencing of conservative voices at the institutions that are supposed to encourage the free and open discussion of ideas. These former bastions of free speech have banned conservative speakers and conservative student groups. And it is not stopping there.
A student group at Harvard has submitted a petition to the administration demanding that the University revoke the degrees of certain groups of graduates. Among them they include anyone that has openly supported President Trump. Their reasoning is that anyone who supported him must be racist, homophobic, misogynistic , or otherwise bigoted towards minority groups. They also want anyone that did not adequately condemn the incursion into the Capitol building to be dissociated with the University. Of course, they will set the standard for what is adequate condemnation.
Just to the south of our little town, a professor at New Mexico State University has put his future career in jeopardy by speaking out against the University President's condemnation of the Capitol building incursion and anyone who supports it. He posted a video that goes through the letter line by line and points out why the president's opinions are legally and factually incorrect. He is now facing tremendous backlash from within the University as well as from outside by groups that want him to be dismissed.
David Clements is his name And I have been in touch with him obtaining the documentation, over 740 pages in the first document dump, that supports his position. I have only been through a few dozen pages but it is one of the most comprehensive reviews of some of the major happenings in our country including the election fraud and overreach of our major political bodies in violation of the Constitution.
President Trump has also been impeached for allegedly inciting the riot even though the timeline and his words do not support that. In fact legal precedent specifically says that no one can be prosecuted for using language that is not specific and clear in fomenting an attack upon the government or revolution. Vague or arbitrary language that could be construed as supporting such an action cannot be used to prosecute anyone. Yet once again, our political leaders ignore the rule of law with the support of not only those in academia and the media but unfortunately a significant portion of our citizenry.
While academia can be blamed for creating this environment in which so many people agree with censorship of free speech, ignoring the rule of law, and generally violating every tenet upon which this country was founded, it really began in the home. The way in which our children have been raised and allowed to be educated is the fault of the parents. They have bought into the argument that the "experts" know more about raising children than we do. Thus, parents have failed to install the principles that many of them believe in their children, allowing them to be offended by everything and failing to prepare them for a world that can be harsh at times.
Do we have a chance to take this country back? I don't know. For the first time my optimistic and hopeful outlook is not as strong as it once was. I look at people that I know to be basically good people in our community who are wholeheartedly jumping on the bandwagon of the cancel culture. Who ignore what is right in front of their eyes with their own friends and neighbors and believe what the media and their elected officials tell them about those who hold conservative principles and beliefs.
But we cannot give up. We are the majority. We must stop cowering and speak up. We do not have to scream and yell and browbeat people as those who hold different ideas must. We do not have to call them names and accuse them of terrible things that are not true in order to have our voices heard. We have truth on our side. It will speak for itself if we set it free. The problem has been that there's so many of us have kept quiet, but our voices put together can reach a cacophony that must not be ignored.