(Akiit.com) It is astonishing that in this day and age – after nearly 70 years of cable TV, 30 years of conservative talk radio, almost 30 years of the internet, two full decades of broadcast dominance by Fox News, a decade-plus of social media and multiple elections (2010, 2014 and 2016) in which the electorate sent a scathing rebuke to this country’s self-appointed elites – the professional left still thinks that it controls the message, that the truth is whatever they tell us it is, facts be damned.
Every day’s news is filled with lefty “narratives” – progressive propaganda unmoored from the truth – that our media (and other reliably left-wing talking heads) continue to reprint and repeat, as if repetition will make the great unwashed masses in flyover country believe it. The fact that millions of Americans don’t fall for the bill of goods they’re being sold has made the left perpetually irate; its efforts to spin and obscure the truth just don’t work like they used to back in the days of three major networks.
Republicans have historically done a dismal job at fighting back against this. But some are starting to get it. (Sen. Lindsey Graham’s remarkable awakening during Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh’s confirmation hearings is one example.) But it takes constant daily pushback to put the truth front and center and keep it there in the face of unrelenting pressure from Democrats and progressives to tell tall tales.
So here is a short list of the things Americans clearly see, notwithstanding the left’s yeoman efforts to pretend that we don’t:
1. Yes, we need border security. Yes, illegal immigration is a huge problem. Yes, we get it – not all those here illegally commit crimes. But we also see the thousands of illegal immigrants who do commit violent crimes who are either not deported or able to return despite deportation. We also see that walls work. (See, e.g., San Diego and Israel.) Claims to the contrary are nonsense.
2. The FBI investigation of President Trump’s “collusion” with Russia has always been a concoction intended to obscure Hillary Clinton’s campaign misdeeds, to tank Trump’s efforts to get elected president of the United States and to cripple his presidency once he won. Recent headlines cast further doubt on the authenticity of the FBI’s intentions in the investigation – and its grasp of reality. (Trump as a secret Russian operative? You’ve got to be kidding.)
3. The #MeToo movement – with its many fallen perpetrators – is further proof that Hollywood is filled with hypocrites whose lack of personal virtue is only surpassed by their hypocrisy in lecturing the rest if America. In case your declining awards show ratings haven’t filled you in, we’re not listening anymore. (By the way, Jeff Bezos, this also applies to you.)
4. Corporations better figure out that the voices that dominate the media don’t necessarily reflect the dominant opinions in the country. Or, to use the popular pithier phrasing, “Get woke. Go broke.” Dick’s Sporting Goods thought it was going to be praised for its valiant virtue signaling when it decided to stop carrying certain firearms. Instead, the public voted with its feet. Now Dick’s is facing lower stock prices and the possible closure of nearly three dozen stores. The Boy Scouts of America is considering bankruptcy in the wake of sex abuse scandals. This is on the heels of declining enrollment following its decisions to admit homosexual scoutmasters, transgender Scouts and girls. What a sad chapter in a once proud organization whose primary purpose was once the formation of upright young men.
5. And speaking of men, yes, there IS a “war on men.” We’ve seen it for years, but it has descended into absurdity with the creation of the “toxic masculinity” narrative. Now college campuses and workplaces offer workshops to “help” men deal with the toxicity of their masculinity. This week, Gillette launched a two-minute commercial devoted to chastising men for “toxic masculinity.” To say the public response was negative is an understatement. We’ll see whether Gillette finds itself in the same bargain basement with Dick’s Sporting Goods and the Boy Scouts.
6. Populism isn’t fascism. Americans see what’s going on in Europe. The public in countries across that continent are rejecting globalism and pressing for preservation of their national identity and political autonomy, even more strenuously than Americans are. Not only are political parties that call for more national autonomy winning greater percentages of national elections but protests – like the U.K Brexit vote and those of the “gilets jaunes” (or “yellow vests”) in France – are also spreading.
7. A child in utero is a human being. On Twitter this past week, Danielle Campoamor tweeted: “Dear #SCOTUS, Fetal tissue is not a person. Fetal tissue is not a person. Fetal tissue is not a person. Fetal tissue is not a person. Fetal tissue is not a person. But I am. And I matter more than fetal tissue.” All human beings are made up of “tissue” (skin, organs, hair, etc.). While the “tissue” is not a person, the person made up of that tissue is. That is just as true of a child in the womb as it is of Ms. Campoamor. And those children matter, too.
The advent of ultrasound has made abortion advocates’ typical talking points divorced from reality and unsupported by science. While there may be support for abortion in limited circumstances at very early gestational stages, the hard-core left’s continued narrative that a human baby isn’t a human baby until it’s born is just a blatant lie that no amount of repetition – no matter how peppered with indignation – can make true.
Columnist; Laura Hollis