February 28, 2022: Democrats will take away our freedom to compete.
The war in Ukraine proves how much we are hurt by the left’s radical climate agenda.
We don’t need Democrats to spend billions on their progressive climate priorities for American businesses to compete. Nor do we need to put unions in charge of our workforce for U.S. manufacturing to thrive. What we need is for Democrats to stop using our businesses to promote a dual climate and socialist labor agenda that puts big government in charge at the expense of our industrial sector’s freedom.
Democrats promote H.R. 4521, the America COMPETES Act as a panacea for industry:
The America COMPETES Act lays the foundation to guarantee America leads the global economy, invests in American workers and manufacturing, and ensures that critical goods essential to our economy and national security are made right here in the United States.191
Rep. Kathy Castor (D-FL), the Chair of the House Select Committee on the Climate Crisis was more transparent about the agenda behind this bill:
The America COMPETES Act will strengthen supply chains for U.S. solar manufacturing, invest in critical equipment for our electric grid, and help train the next generation of clean energy workers,” said Chair Castor.192
This is the real plan:
This is how we win the 21st century: by empowering our domestic industries to lead the world in manufacturing electric vehicles, clean energy components, and other climate solutions. We have the infrastructure. We have the know-how. And we have the workforce. Now we need the right policies in place to make it happen.”193
Nancy Pelosi adopted a decidedly socialist tone while promoting this legislation:
This is a piece of legislation that will enable our President, our government – whatever it is, but at this time our President – to declare us independent, self-sufficient in terms of how we address the factors of production needed for us to prevail.194192
Kamala Harris is all in on handing over our industrial workforce to big labor:
In keeping with the direction and guidance provided by Vice President Harris and Secretary Walsh, the Task Force has developed a set of recommendations that, when implemented, will promote worker organizing and collective bargaining for federal employees and for workers employed by public and private-sector employers.195
This is not a road map for competition. This is a plan for failure, the kind of failure that’s staring us smack in the face thanks to Joe Biden’s attack on U.S. energy production and his obdurate refusal to change course despite the consequences presented by the war in Ukraine.
Our businesses don’t need the Democrat Party’s climate agenda to prevail. We don’t need unions to take over our private workforce to compete. These are things the Democrat Party needs and wants for its donors that will not make America a self-sufficient, manufacturing powerhouse.
Biden and the Democrats took away the freedom provided by energy independence because it ran afoul of their progressive priorities. Now our businesses are paying higher prices for energy, for freight and shipping, and for the materials needed for production because Democrats denied the freedom provided by self-sufficiency. Instead, we’re buying oil from Russia and terrorist state Iran. Worst of all, our president took decisive steps to help Vladimir Putin dominate the energy market in Europe instead of maximizing that advantage for America.
Taking away the freedom for our industries to be self-sufficient and making it easier for big labor to infiltrate the private sector is how Democrats plan to help themselves while they flap their lips about helping American businesses compete. It’s a roadmap to certain failure, but since their agenda takes precedence over reality failure is not an issue they are concerned with.
UPDATE March 8, 2022:
The White House ban on Russian oil imports takes your freedom away and it’s not Putin’s fault.
Joe Biden wants you to know that freedom has a cost that just went up with today’s decision to end Russian oil imports to the U.S.:
This is a step that we’re taking to inflict further pain on Putin. But there will be costs as well here in the United States. I said I would level with the American people from the beginning. And when I first spoke to this, I said defending freedom is going to cost — it’s going to cost us as well, in the United States.196
Anyone who has visited a gas station or grocery store recently knows very well who is paying that cost. Rest assured it is not Biden, who in all likelihood is not even risking his political career given that he’s barely functioning now and 2024 is a long way away.
The American people understand the costs Biden is talking about. We also understand that he is not telling the truth in favor of a shrewd political calculation that hurts Americans for the sake of progressive politics.
Trying to shift the blame for our energy prices to Putin is like blaming Donald Trump for the war, which the administration has also attempted. Putin may be a murdering dictator, a thug, and a war criminal, but our gas prices are not his fault despite what Biden claims to shift the blame away from his failed administration:
The decision today is not without cost here at home. Putin’s war is already hurting American families at the gas pump.197
The problem with our gas prices is not “Putin’s war.” It’s Joe Biden’s war against the American energy industry. He needs to end it now. As gas prices and everything they are tied to go up, our freedom is taken away.
Vacations, meals out, birthday and Christmas presents for your kids, home repairs, and almost everything you do in your day to day life is tied to how much cash you have on hand. When that cash goes into paying the higher prices of the Biden economy your freedom to do things to make your life better is compromised. For some, so is the freedom to do things they cannot do without. The cost of the prescription drugs Nancy Pelosi keeps promising to make cheaper may not be affordable because your long commute to work is suddenly too expensive. Doctor’s visits get skipped. Cheap, unhealthy food is swapped out for healthy food. The list is long. You get the idea.
For those who argue that our suffering is nonexistent compared to what the people of Ukraine are experiencing, I could not agree more. The difference is that the suffering of the American people and the restrictions on our freedom caused by higher prices is a consequence of the president’s pandering to radical progressives. Banning Russian oil imports will make it worse and yes, it is the right thing to do but Democrat Party politics is the reason it will inflict pain.
UPDATE March 25, 2022:
We lost more of our freedom yesterday and most of us probably didn’t notice.
Nothing threatens our sense of security like the words “food shortage.” Obviously, food is something we can’t live without and restricting its availability takes away our freedom to live our lives.
Food shortage was one of the dismal takeaway messages from our president’s press conference yesterday:
With regard to food shortage, yes, we did talk about food shortages. And — and it’s going to be real. The price of these sanctions is not just imposed upon Russia, it’s imposed upon an awful lot of countries as well, including European countries and our country as well. And — because both Russia and Ukraine have been the breadbasket of Europe in terms of wheat, for example — just to give you one example.
The other was the shocking threat that we would respond to a chemical attack “in kind,” whatever that means.
For all the criticism heaped on the president for bungling practically everything he gets his hands on, here he deserves some credit. After fifteen months of ramping up the misery inflicted on the American people, Biden found a way to make life in America even more unhappy and desperate than it already is by threatening one of our most fundamental human needs.
Democrats are firmly entrenched in power, making decisions in line with their progressive orthodoxy instead of what’s best for America. The result? We’ve suffered a shortage of COVID tests to deal with the omicron surge and listened to an agenda-driven FDA explain how identity politics should determine how we dole out lifesaving drugs. Gas prices are through the roof. They impact almost everything we buy. The White House didn’t address the supply chain crisis until well after it had reached crisis limits and gave us a preview of Biden’s food shortage to come. We did too little too late to help Ukraine in its war with Russia and even now can’t send a decisive message to Putin to deter him from committing further war crimes.
Perhaps the president’s handlers forgot about the pandemic run on stores and the resulting, unnecessary shortages created by frightened hoarders. Hearing the words “food shortage” from America’s president is precisely what we need to elicit the same behavior all over again. That worry takes your freedom away because it’s almost impossible to engage in the pursuit of happiness guaranteed by our Constitution when we have to worry what new disaster is around the corner, including putting food that’s already too expensive on our tables.
UPDATE April 24, 2022:
Don’t forget these 10 freedoms you’ve already lost to Democrats and Biden.
With a growing list of avoidable catastrophes on their hands the one thing Democrats have going for them is that it’s hard for voters to keep track of everything that’s gone bad since January 2021. As their party works with the White House to progressively ruin everything that was running like a Swiss watch while Trump was in charge, American freedoms so basic we don’t even think about them are vanishing one after another.
Not surprisingly, those who gave up the most freedom are also the ones hurt the most by the myriad punishments doled out by the Biden economy. While liberal political elites preen for their media the Democrat Party’s base suffers and waits for the litany of lies we can depend on during this year’s desperate midterm races.
Here are 10 freedoms Democrats and Joe Biden took away. In their absence life is less free and equal for the American people.
1. Freedom to travel.
No, I don’t mean the kind of freedom Climate Envoy John Kerry enjoys on his climate-destroying jet. Losing the freedom to travel because of Biden’s energy prices hurts people with far more pedestrian concerns. When you can’t afford gas your movement is restricted. You might not even be able to afford to commute to work. Luckily, that family vacation to Disney World probably doesn’t sound all that appealing anymore. You’ll save a bundle that can go in your gas tank. If there is anything left over you can feed your kids.
2. Freedom to buy the things that you need.
For years Democrats have demanded that we raise the federal minimum wage. They are pretty quiet about the impact their inflationary economy has on lower wage earners who have to decide whether to buy gas, food, prescriptions, or pay the rent. The equation is simple: the less money you have available to spend, the less freedom you have to live your life as you choose.
3. Freedom to feel safe.
Visiting a tony urban district like Chicago’s Magnificent Mile is now a safety calculation. Is a shopping trip worth the risk? Car jackings and smash and grabs are extending into city suburbs thanks to criminals who know their careers will never get better than they are right now thanks to woke law enforcement officials like Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx and L.A. District Attorney George Gascon.
While Democrats tick off their talking points about background checks, white supremacy, ghost guns, and get out of jail free legislation, bullets fly through living room windows and bedroom walls in low income neighborhoods. When you can’t be safe in your own home you have lost a fundamental freedom to live without the constant fear of sudden death hanging over you and your family.
Democratic elites don’t care because they don’t live in violent neighborhoods. They can afford to hire private security and they can always lie about the causes of crime when they run for reelection. For some reason their base keeps coming back for more.
4. Freedom to send your kids to school and know they are not being used as political pawns by gender weirdos.
Do your children’s’ values come from your family or woke Democrats, activists, teachers’ unions, and gender weirdos who want to use children as their political pawns?
As you read about the left’s newest campaign of lies and hate directed at parental rights in Florida, ask yourself: should these awful people be in charge of what your children believe or for that matter, do you want them near your children at all?
5. Freedom to live in a country respected for its greatness.
Since WWII enormous freedom has come to the American people thanks to our status as the world’s preeminent economic and military superpower.
Now, thanks to Biden and the Democrat Party we’re a global embarrassment. How can our allies trust a president who is dragged away by a lackey suited up as the Easter Bunny because he answered a question? How can our adversaries not take advantage of this obvious weakness?
There is freedom in security and strength in greatness. We’re losing that freedom because Democrats don’t believe America is worthy. Their every word and deed is focused on making the case that we’re not nearly as good as everyone thought. This undermines our greatness and with it the freedom to not be prey for global bad actors.
6. Freedom to receive reliable public health information in a crisis.
Do you remember disinfecting your groceries at the beginning of the pandemic? How about searching the internet for the safest distance to walk past others outdoors?
In retrospect these things were understandable as the pandemic got underway. As Democrats realized the benefits of politicizing the virus, Americans realized that the guidance coming from our massive public health administration was less than trustworthy. Public health regulations restricting our freedom were arbitrary and capricious. Sickness and death skyrocketed despite lockdowns, shelter in place orders, and mask mandates.
The freedom to know that the guidance we receive from state and federal health bureaucracies is reliable and free of politics is important. That freedom is gone. Never again will we trust the CDC, the FDA, state governors and their departments of health, the White House, and especially career bureaucrats like Anthony Fauci during a national health crisis.
You’re on your own, folks. That freedom is better for your health.
7. Freedom to not be attacked by politicians, the media, prominent voices, and the public school system because of the color of your skin.
There is freedom in equality. Equity? Not so much, but now equality is out and equity is in. If you’re white, then everything the left despises is your fault. You probably don’t even understand why. Not to worry. If the woke corporation you work for won’t instruct you in the racist beliefs you didn’t know you had, your kids can probably enlighten you.
The lies would be tolerable partisan nonsense if so much of the nation didn’t lap them up like so much toxic woke Kool-Aid. Your freedom is restricted when laws are passed and policies enacted because of the liberal lie that America and our white majority population is fundamentally racist. This might mean you don’t get a job because you are white or your child is not accepted to a college because of their skin color.
Worst case? Being attacked for your skin color by our government could deny you the freedom to live.
8. Freedom to be allowed lifesaving medication regardless of the color of your skin.
Severe case of COVID? Are you white? Too bad.
Democrats don’t talk much about this, but it happened on Joe Biden’s watch. His newly-woke FDA adopted COVID treatment policies that add skin color as a risk factor for severe illness are progressive, racist, and un-American. During Biden’s phase of a pandemic where the availability of treatments like monoclonal antibodies is up for grabs, this takes away the freedom for Americans to feel secure knowing they have unfettered access to lifesaving medications without regard to their race or ethnicity.
We can never, ever forgive or forget that liberal politicians and bureaucrats were willing to accept this racist, equity-based health agenda that hurts and potentially kills people because of their whiteness. The other, even more important issue here is not the availability of COVID treatments, but where else covert, race-based health policies are implemented out of the public’s eye?
9. Freedom from Democrat Party Kangaroo Courts.
I’m still puzzling over how our constitutional republic can be so fragile that January 6 almost changed the result of a presidential election. No one has explained this. Are Democrats implying that next time conservatives don’t like the winner all we need to do is mount a protest and the results will be reversed?
Democrats have such low regard for this country that they gleefully telegraph to the world that all it takes to overthrow our government is a disorganized, directionless riot like we saw on January 6. Meanwhile, Nancy Pelosi’s partisan tribunal is hard at work and no doubt preparing for an assortment of explosive pre-midterm revelations about insurrectionist-minded Republicans.
It’s been many years since a Wisconsin senator went down a similar path. Democrats didn’t learn the lesson, but they will. By the time Pelosi’s kangaroo court releases its findings (October?), Americans will be more than fed up with her party’s nonsense and more than willing to take our freedom back including the risks to our liberty imposed by this kind of sweeping partisan witch hunt.
10. Freedom to not read blog posts about losing your freedoms.
Is the hemorrhaging of our freedoms ever going to stop? That’s up to the American people. We own the government. That’s why the Constitution begins with “we the people” and not “we the Democrats.” It’s time to return all of our freedoms and liberties to where they belong. That will take another election in November that will tell us just how willing Americans are to give up the freedoms that Democrats took away simply because they could.
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Googan says
People do not understand how the Democrats and the Obama administration are slowly strangling the very freedoms that the Revolution was fought for. The facts are clear when you see the Constitution being trampled on by Obama, and then realize that he could not pass a gun owner background check, which is why he has sealed “ALL” of his records.
If congress were to pass any new legislation on background checking it must include the requirement that “ALL” politicians running for public office must “PASS” those requirements or be disqualified.
As it stands right now, Obama could not ” PASS” a standard FBI check from the details that were written in his book, which is why his certification was challenged. The judges that had cases before them refused to hear the arguments and thusly dismissed those cases. What gutless wonders we have in the justice system including the Supreme Court.
sandy wilson says
Obama is tearing our nation apart. and he is banking on the ignorant that don’t pay attention. obama has a shady past and i am not convinced that he is a true citizen of the united states. If you vote democrat you are voting to end america as a freedom country. Obama is taking it all away and people are not paying attention. when it’s gone and you are under the control of a dictator you will wish you had paid attention. but this country has been under attack before obama but now it’s speeded up so much it will be a miracle if we can keep it
Bob says
We’ll find out next week how well people are paying attention, won’t we, Sandy? I agree, it’s pretty amazing that no matter how bad things are or how misguided the actions of public officials, they still manage to convince people to support what they do. Watch what happens in the Illinois governor’s race next week. If Pat Quinn wins, it’s a pretty good sign that we are truly lost.
Ed M says
freedom from harm is not a reasonable freedom. Freedom from unjust aggression is reasonable, and the primary reason for government.
Bob Prokop says
Thanks for your remarks, Ed. Interesting how some of what’s happening now at the hands of government could be considered unjust aggression, like the searches they conducted in Rhode Island looking for New Yorkers. It’s difficult to know where to draw the line between government overreach and the public interest, but that was quite a line to cross.
Diane McGuinness says
Obama signed a bill to allow the media to profess false narratives for the peoples ow good HR4310
Scott says
Joseph Goebbels would be so proud.
Bob Prokop says
I don’t know if the intention was to turn lies into the sole means of communicating with the people to the complete exclusion of the truth, but it has certainly paid off for Democrats and the White House.
John Ille says
Wow, the RWNJ is strong with this one.
Bob Prokop says
I’m listening, John.