Jeff Minick – December 2, 2020
In the 1976 film Network, a newscaster driven to the brink of insanity by his rage exhorts his viewers to throw open the windows of their apartments and homes, and shout “I’m mad as h—, and I’m not going to take it anymore.” Within minutes, thousands of people are roaring these words into the night.
In the wake of a decades-long culture war, four years of bile and lies from the left and the mainstream media, nine months of coronavirus lockdowns, and now an election possibly rife with fraud, more and more Americans are opening their eyes to the debased state of their political system and the abusive machinations of their governments.
More and more of them are spitting mad and are not going to take it anymore.
The COVID-19 lockdowns are seeing greater pushback from angry citizens who fear the loss of their jobs and their way of life. In “Civil Disobedience Over Lockdowns Spreads Across America,” Foundation for Economic Education’s Jon Miltimore cites several examples of these protests in the streets, by private citizens and even by sheriffs and country officials who refuse to carry out the extreme orders of their governors, particularly the dictates and regulations issued just before the holiday season.
In “Cops Refuse to be the Thanksgiving Police,” Daniel Greenfield reports in even greater detail the refusal of many police departments to investigate citizens in their homes for possibly violating such orders. From coast to coast, the police are bravely and righteously ignoring dictates demanding they knock on doors and disperse families and friends eating supper together.
Here in Warren County, Virginia, for example, the sheriff’s department issued a statement just before Thanksgiving instructing residents not to call 911 or the sheriff’s department to report neighbors hosting large numbers of visitors. Instead, the department politely asked those with such concerns to contact public health officials, as such matters fell under their jurisdiction.
In other words, the sheriff was saying that they were not going to be knocking at the doors of those enjoying their Thanksgiving meal.
Another example: my daughter shared a post from Pennsylvania State Representative David Rowe, who was seated in a bar holding a drink in one hand and a phone showing the time—5:01 p.m.—in the other, with the post’s message reading “Happy Thanksgiving, Governor Wolf!” Wolf had ordered all bars and stores to quit selling alcoholic beverages at 5 p.m. on Thanksgiving Eve.
Many Americans are also incensed over the 2020 presidential election results. President Trump’s lawyers are attempting to find evidence of possible frauds—mail-in ballots, tens of thousands of dead voters who miraculously cast ballots, massive computer irregularities and malfeasance—that if nothing else reveal the sorry state of our election system. Thousands of Americans have come forward to swear under oath that they observed such irregularities, again a sign of protest.
Social media provides more evidence of American fury with the system. With social media giants such as Facebook and Twitter censoring different outlets, including Intellectual Takeout, droves of people are abandoning those platforms for less suppressive outfits like Parler, Rumble, and MeWe.
Meanwhile, millions of Americans are expressing their anger with the system in more personal ways. Many families this past summer, for example, abandoned the public school system, switching to private schools or taking matters into their own hands and teaching their kids at home.
Others are supporting one another through social media and informal networking. For example, my friend John was at the laundromat this week, where he has befriended one of the employees. When the man asked how he was doing, John gave a disheartened answer, referencing the state of the country, at which point his friend gave him such an impassioned speech—“It’s not time to quit, it’s time to get fired up!”—that John left with his spirits renewed.
For four years, we have heard about the Resistance, a conglomeration of radicals, leftists, officials in various government bureaucracies, wealthy donors, and others, all of them determined to damage Donald Trump’s presidency or remove him from office altogether.
Now the time has come for a New Resistance. Into this merry band we should welcome everyone—Democrats, Republicans, conservatives, liberals, libertarians, men and women, straight and gay, black, brown, and white—who cherishes liberty and despises tyranny. We can make our voices heard in myriad ways, we can protest every time a “servant of the people” puts on a tin-pot hat and starts issuing edicts as if he were an emperor, and we can stick together and stand fast in the face of oppression.
Whether Trump is reelected is immaterial to this cause. Indeed, given his penchant for spending us ever deeper into debt, we should hold Trump’s feet to the fire as well. We must rise above politics and start advocating for what’s best for the country and for individual freedom.
It’s the American Way, and we need to get back on this path as soon as possible.
Originally published at intellectualtakeout.org.
Image Credit: Flickr-Ted Eytan
