December 23, 2022

There was a time, in years past, when calling someone a hypocrite was taken as an insult to a person’s integrity, or more specifically their lack thereof. That is no longer the case. Today’s political Left, Democrats in particular, now seemingly take pride in their ability to shift positions at will. They do so in all sincerity, with a straight face while facing no repercussions in either the media or at the polls. As Grouch Marx once said regarding politicians: “Sincerity is the key to success. Once you can fake that you’ve got it made.” Democrats have perfected this into an art form.

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Today, as evident by the treatment of Elon Musk’s recent disclosures at Twitter, we have seen the entire Left do a complete 180 regarding Free speech government secrecy and collusions with big business.

Many people who may have been around back in the 60s and 70s, may be confused on this whole Elon Musk/Twitter kerfuffle.  If you are unclear on this, join the crowd. During those years the Left told us that big government and big business were not to be trusted and freedom of speech was an ingrained strength of the nation. Mario Savio, a leader in the so-called Free Speech Movement on the Berkeley campus, was an icon of the urban leftist radicals. Free speech was valued at that time by, so much so that battles, between demonstrators and police, were fought over the subject on the Berkeley campus.

Another hero to the Left in that era was Daniel Ellsberg, a former employee at the Pentagon. His release of the famous expose of government actions regarding Vietnam, which became popularly known as the “Pentagon Papers,” enshrined him as a hero to those who felt exposing government duplicity was an honorable calling. Ellsberg was charged for his actions, but the criminal case was dismissed, primarily due to FBI malfeasance. His exposé marked a high point for the political Left of the day.

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At the same time, Nixon became the epitome of the evil that the government represented. His team’s crime: Stealing information and then suppressing the facts concerning that crime.  These actions were exposed by two men, Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein collectively termed “Woodstein” by Ben Bradlee, the editor-in-chief of the Washington Post.

Whistleblowers Woodward, Bernstein, Ellsberg, were heroes of the time. Others like Abbie Hoffman and Saul Alinsky became cult icons of the Left. They were good honest fair-minded people out to defend our rights, especially our right to information that the government was concealing from us, at least that was what the Left told us at the time. Any such dishonesty, nondisclosure and secrets on the part of the government were unacceptable.

But today? Those who were part of that ’60s movement, or educated by those who were, have now become leaders of the country. Obama modeled his early career after Alinsky, Hillary wrote a thesis on him.

But what happened? What changes have we seen in such people, the ones who proclaimed to stand for integrity and an open governance since those turbulent days?

They have in fact done a compete 180 having turned themselves into a Nixon on steroids like clone of secrecy, vengeance, and retribution. They have kept information from the public. They have used the FBI, CIA, and IRS as well as highly partisan congressional “investigations,”  to punish and go after their enemies. They have turned fair law into “lawfare.” 

They told Facebook, Twitter, and Google what information was to be held from the American people. Those in charge within the high-tech Industry dutifully obeyed state orders and coordinated their efforts with the FBI. The Left was now revealing its true beliefs: the people have no right to such information, but only to the information approved by the government authorities who they now control. All was well, according to the powers that be, those deplorables were being held in check.