Alinski For We, But Not For Thee
By Mitch Berg
Last week on social media (and, maybe, althought I can’t remember, in this space), I pointed out this excellent thread by Ezra Levant – one of the most cogent commentators on civil liberty in Canada and, in many ways, the US – for some interesting insights on the effect the Canadian trucker’s strike is having on both sides of the border.
The whole thread, like most everything Levant writes, is worth a close read:
A commentator who, to be fair, is lately doing a pretty fair Bill Gleason impression, replied to me saying “I remember when conservatives said blocking bridges was a bad thing” – as if I’m excusing something with the truckers that I condemned with BLM blocking freeways.
It was, of course, an ignorant take at best, and a dishonest one at worst (and I’m leaning toward dishonest); your protest, like any other free speech, has no right to harm others, and blocking freeways does in fact harm others.
But my criticism, then as now, was not of the legitimacy or turpitude of the protesters – there are plenty of people covering that turf – but of the local and regional governments in both cases. Local government in Minneapolis and Saint Paul enabled BLM to take over streets and freeways, passively (pointedly ignoring applicable laws) and actively (opening routes and managing not just freeway traffic, but protester traffic, in some cases pointing out foot routes onto the freeways). I pointed out, from experience, that a pro-life or 2nd Amendment group going out on the freeway would have gotten a very different official reception…
…as, indeed, have the truckers, who have turned Big Left’s methods against Big Left, and are getting Big Left’s exposed inner id out there on display:
As I write, Canadian police, many dressed in military garb and supported by armored vehicles and snipers(!), are moving in to enforce several court orders and demands of Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Ontario Premier Doug Ford, and others that the “Freedom Convoy” of Canadian truckers stop blocking the Ambassador Bridge, the major artery between the United States and Canada, and disperse. Some of the protestors are leaving while many others are standing their ground.
My point – which apparently still eludes the commenter noted above – is that representative democracy can not survive when there are one set of laws for the political “haves” and one for the “Have nots”. ere we
Which, when it comes to political speech in general, is exactly where we are today.
More later.
February 14th, 2022 at 11:51 am
There are too many points in this post to keep track of. I predict a threadjack.
February 14th, 2022 at 4:30 pm
As of a few minutes ago, the Canadian nat’l government decided to throw gas on the fire. From smalldeadanimals, Freedoms Decreasing.
February 14th, 2022 at 8:02 pm
I’ve been saying this for years: your freedom is their enemy.
February 15th, 2022 at 10:06 am
I keep hoping some bold journalist will ask Lesko Brandon:
“Why were truckers exempt from mandatory vaccine as ‘esential workers’ during the first two years of the pandemic, but now they’re no longer exempt? What changed about the SCIENCE which necessitated the change? Do you have tracking data showing Covid spreads where truckers go? Do you have contact tracing data showing asymptomatic truckers are super-spreaders? Why this and why now?”
“A follow-up question: your decision not to impose a trucker vaccine mandate earlier in the pandemic needlessly exposed millions of people to a deadly virus. What do you say to the families of those who died because of your mistake?”
I know . . . I’m a wise guy. But it’s fun to imagine it.
February 15th, 2022 at 10:31 am
Also, the Canadian situation is ripe for a Monty Python sketch.
Minister: I’m ordering all truck drivers to get vaxxed.
Trucker: I protest the order to get vaxxed.
M: You can’t. I’m issuing an order making it illegal to protest the order for all truckers to get vaxxed.
T: I’m protesting the order making it illegal to protest the order for all truckers to get vaxxed.
M: I’m issuing an order to freeze the bank accounts of anyone who protests the order making it illegal to protest the order for all truckers to get vaxxed.
T: It’s people like you what cause unrest.
February 15th, 2022 at 11:09 am
JD, it is not a Monty Python sketch, it is an excerpt from Woody Allen’s Bananas.
February 15th, 2022 at 2:08 pm
“I remember when conservatives said blocking bridges was a bad thing”
I remember when liberals said blocking freeways was a good thing. AOC, your darling spokesbimbo, even said “protests are SUPPOSED to make people feel uncomfortable”. You’re getting a taste of your own medicine. Except the truckers are not committing murders, nor causing untold billions in property damage, nor losses of more billions in loss of merchandise via theft and/or destruction.
Kermit Hague said it right here way more than a decade ago, and I’ve been able to applicably repeat it; monthly, if not weekly: If it weren’t for double standards, the liberals would have none.