Ten years ago, when Tea Party Patriot groups were popping up all over America to fight back against Obamacare's socialized medicine and its expansion of the welfare state, it was common to hear the battle framed as one between "makers" and "takers," a rebuke by working-class Americans who knew they would ultimately be paying more in taxes for worse health care so that Americans who paid no taxes at all could have their "fair share."  When people called out Obama and his medical mandates (you must have Obamacare, and Obamacare must cover abortions, "sex change" operations, and anything else the government decrees...) for orchestrating a federal takeover of one-fifth of the economy while inviting Big Brother to peek behind the hospital curtain and spy on the private health decisions of every American, they were lambasted for not having enough empathy for those in need.  Obama was just implementing Romneycare on a national scale and walking in George Bush's "compassionate conservative" footsteps, after all.  What could possibly go wrong?

Turns out an awful lot can go wrong awfully quickly.  Obamacare mandates have morphed into mask and lockdown and injection mandates.  Obama's use of the NSA, IRS, and FBI to threaten conservative speech became redundant when Silicon Valley censorship boards jumped in to do the government's bidding in the name of public health.  After conditioning Americans to recoil at anything deemed "hate speech" or "harmful misinformation," the government has had a pretty easy time banning as "hateful" or "harmful" anybody still putting up a fight.  And after scaring enough Americans into thinking they would instantly die for breathing fresh air, the gangrenous Obama Gang has had no problem finding volunteers willing to spy on their neighbors, lock themselves behind closed doors, and demand implementation of government-issued travel papers for future movements of any kind.

Thank goodness the World Health Organization wasn't around in 1781, or General Cornwallis might have won at Yorktown just by browbeating our colonial ancestors into believing that freedom can be granted only by credentialed health professionals.  "You see, George, our civilian wellness authorities assure us that your little revolution has been a super-spreader event of the highest order, and these are nonpartisan 'experts,' mind you, so to continue would just be devilishly selfish.  Best to lock everyone back in their homes.  You don't mind garrisoning some of our troops, do you?  Whole thing should be over in fifteen days.  Honest."  Nah, when you're fighting for freedom at any cost, nothing stands in your way.  When you're handed freedom at no cost, nothing seems worth the fight.  You can't secure independence while declaring dependence on government at every turn.

Obviously, people who take freedom for granted don't spend a lot of time considering how they're being led by their government one baby step at a time toward their own imprisonment.  Still, surely there's a point when a person of reasonable intelligence looks around and thinks, "Hmm, letting a bunch of politicians decide what I write on Facebook, whether I can go to work, when I might see my friends and family, and how many trips I make outside my apartment doesn't seem very different from asking a warden for permission to live."  Whom am I kidding?  Just the other day, Jennifer Aniston was telling millions of impressionable celebrity gawkers that it is their "moral and professional obligation" to publicly reveal their vaccination status, and people applauded.  (Asking about someone's HIV status, on the other hand, is still strictly verboten.)  It's clear that years of pop culture peer pressure and social media manipulation have lobotomized just enough Americans into believing they can truly be free only by following orders.  

When self-described "progressives" gleefully condemn "fascism" by urging the government to take ever more control over their lives, it's obvious that most of them wouldn't catch on even if Obama stood there, himself, handing them the bricks and wet cement for their own 6 x 8 cell.  For crying out loud, Obama literally went down to communist Cuba to surrender to Castro, and the Hollywood set called it a historic time for "Libertad."  Then, when the Cuban people rose up in 2021 to demand actual liberty, Obama's followers blamed Cubans in the streets for daring to fight for freedom during a "pandemic."  Do we see a pattern here?  Independence must be put on hold when communists call for "health timeouts" and universal lockdowns in the name of public safety.  It's not that commies want to keep control over the peasants; it's that commies take your health very seriously.  So seriously, in fact, that you might not get to keep it if you can't do what they say.

Democrat Congressman Ted Lieu just finished lecturing Americans that they have no right to breathe in public spaces.  He actually called this the "tyranny of the minority."  Lieu's woke wisdom comes at the same time Darth Fauci has declared that "individual rights" can be protected only by forcing people to wear masks in perpetuity, even though mandatory face coverings have been mocked as nothing more than "comfort blankets" and "cosmetic theater" for pacifying the hysterical since they do next to nothing to contain viral spread.  Only Democrats would fight for "justice" by suffocating the masses and shaming the un-indoctrinated for believing they have the right to breathe.

What's the lesson here?  Tyranny always starts with a little prick.  Obamacare didn't make America healthy.  The vaccines haven't set Americans free.  As Camus potently warned those willing to listen, "The welfare of the people is the alibi of tyrants."  Forget the battle between "makers" and "takers."  For Americans to win back their freedom, it's "slaves" versus "braves" from here on out.

Image: Triggermouse via Pixabay, Pixabay License.

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