We’re Almost There

     You need to read this Julie Kelly column:

     Dave Morris was fed up.

     As a gainfully-employed television news reporter aired a live segment outside a small café to tell viewers that Morris was keeping his business open despite a government order to close it, the Portage, Michigan restaurant owner confronted him. The Kalamazoo Health Department had issued a warning to Morris on December 1 for allowing indoor dining against the wishes of Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer; he was instructed to shut down his business immediately or face a fine imposed by the government.

     The local journalist was on the scene, however, to tattle.

     “Everyone needs to stand up,” Morris told WWMT-TV reporter Tavarious Haywood on Wednesday. “This isn’t an order . . . this is tyranny. Wake up, stand up, this is America, be free.” (Haywood later tweeted about his own bravery in the face of an “angry business owner” who “interrupted” him.)

     Morris, who has owned D&R’s Daily Grind Cafe for 12 years, said he’s lost $100,000 in business this year and is going broke. “I can go down quietly or I can go down making some noise so people understand what’s going on,” he said.

     Dave Morris is an American hero, one I’d be proud to know personally and to stand beside. Anyone who reads the rest of the column without his blood pressure grazing 200 should check his pulse: you may have died and not noticed. A living American should be incensed to the point of violence.

     So why aren’t we?

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     If we don’t rear up on our hind legs and rebel, we will lose everything: our rights, our property, and our children’s hopes of ever living in a free society. The time for it is long past. It was already behind us when the “authorities” reacted to the Wuhan virus by quarantining the entire country.

     Do it Gandhi’s way: simply ignore the tyrants, their decrees, their “regulatory bodies,” and their threats. Gandhi knew the British authorities could not impose their will on millions of Indians who wanted only to see them leave. The same is true for these United States. A sufficiently large mass of non-compliant Americans and their businesses will bring the edifice of tyranny crashing down.

     If enough Americans simply refuse to comply, the “authorities” will lose their nerve. They won’t send in the troops and tanks; it’s too likely that half or more of those troops and tanks would turn and fire on them. That’s one of the beauties of a “citizen army.”

     I sense that we’re almost there. The renewed “lockdowns,” mask mandates with no exit criterion, isolating demands such as that we “cancel Christmas,” and selective enforcement of totalitarian decrees against churches, schools, and small businesses have brought us very close to the edge. But we won’t be there until you, Gentle Reader, are willing to stand forth, say “I shall not comply,” and stand with your fellows.

     For there’s another “almost there” to consider: the point of no return. Americans’ compliance with the tyrants’ decrees has emboldened them to the point where they think they can get away with anything. “Rights be damned! Constitution be damned! If we say there’s a crisis, then there’s a crisis and you’ll do what we tell you. We’ll mobilize the whole weight of social opinion against you. The media will pillory you. Your employer will cast you out. Your friends and neighbors will shun you. Maybe even your family will disavow you. We will use our traditional weapon against you, one that has seldom failed to get us our way: fear.”

     To rebel, you have to be angry: angry enough that it overwhelms your fear. So ask yourself:

     What do I fear?
     Is the threat fact or fiction?
     How highly do I value my freedom?
     How angry am I at the tyrants?
     Why am I waiting for permission to live and work like a free man from tyrants who won’t even comply with their own dictates?

     Measure your anger against your fear. Which is greater – and why?

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     This is the last time I’ll address this subject. Dave Morris is showing us the way. His example is what we need, not more blather from an old crank on Long Island. Anyway, Julie Kelly has said all that needs to be said, and I dislike repetition.

     “This is how these things happen, Vladimir. You see all your peasants smile and look sleepy and they say, ‘Oh, this is our lot in life,’ and then something happens and they all say, ‘We will die to keep them from doing this to our children.’ All in a night it can happen, Vladimir.” – Steven Brust

     “If ye love wealth better than liberty, the tranquility of servitude better than the animating contest of freedom, go home from us in peace. We ask not your counsels or arms. Crouch down and lick the hands which feed you. May your chains set lightly upon you, and may posterity forget that ye were our countrymen.” – Samuel Adams

     Have a nice day.

     UPDATE: Add this from John Hinderaker:

     The totalitarian impulse has been loosed, and a dismaying number of Americans are on board with it. Californians are now ordered to wear masks in their homes and cars, which is stupid on any interpretation of the data. They also are forbidden to leave their homes to, for example, walk their dogs. On the other hand, there are lots of exceptions. For a “critical” activity–like participating in a podcast–you can go out. In other words, peons stay home.

     I grew up in a time when everyone took it for granted that America was a liberty-loving country. If one kid tried to boss around another kid on a playground, the standard reply was: “It’s a free country!” I doubt that our children say that anymore. We are divided 50/50: half of us want America to be a free country, and half of us don’t. How we can manage to coexist is an open question.

     It cannot be said better than that.