Editor’s Note: From the Back Forty is Liberty Nation’s longest-running and most popular weekly column. Capturing the truth each week from heartlanders in Flyover states, LN gives voice to the hard-working Americans otherwise ignored by the coastal elites.
Catching the eye of a flyover citizen isn’t all that easy. They are busy going to work, looking after children, tending to the farm and livestock, and being productive members of society. But as one red-stater working at a collision repair shop exclaimed during his lunch hour, “what a buffet of crises we face these days.” The body man may have a point: Between a new claim of an enemy against the State and Democrats calling to defund the police while racking up insane private security bills, things look to be coming in upside down, backward, and on fire.
Enemy of the People. Again
Award-winning filmmaker and noted historian Ken Burns called Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg an “enemy of the state.” With documentaries about Vietnam and the Civil War already under his belt, Burns has now taken on a new subject: Muhammed Ali. During an interview about his newest documentary on The Sway, a podcast from The New York Times, Burns was asked if he thought any tech type could ever have the same cultural impact as the activist-pugilist. Oh boy, if only they had known how loaded a question it was. But Burns obliged:
“I mean, I hope Zuckerberg is in jail by then. This is an enemy of the state, and I mean the United States of America. He doesn’t give a sh-t about us, the United States. He knows he can transcend it. He can get away to any place. And so it’s just about filthy lucre, that’s it.”
Ken Burns (Photo by Steven Ferdman/Getty Images)
You might say the folks at The Sway struck a nerve. But Burns struck a nerve with a few people on social media, like Shawn Brookhart from Bismark, ND, who observed: “He is only one on a long list of current enemies of the state! There is hardly a media person today that is a friend of our republic!” Present company excluded.
“Something tells me Ken Burns is getting banned from Facebook,” offered Rob Zambrano in Michigan. We agree. He’s going to get very unfriended.
Open Mouth, Insert Foot Goes National
Rep. Cori Bush (D-MO) is one angry interviewee with a talent for speaking out of both sides of her mouth (a skill in which many politicians can claim expertise). Speaking to CBSN anchors on her drive to transform the law enforcement community, she eloquently barked: “You know what, I get to be here to do the work. So, suck it up if defunding the police has to happen.” She went on for about three minutes, but the most interesting takeaway was how she began her tirade by trying to answer why she is spending $70,000 on her protective service.
“You want me to die? Is that what you’re saying? You want to see me die because that could be the alternative. I have private security because my body is worth being on this planet right now.” The swift change in direction was cause to pause for a double dose of Dramamine. Bush doubled down with a dramatically raised voice and brought up the white supremacist narrative, and, well, yadda, yadda, yadda.
It prompted a plethora of Orwellian references to Animal Farm and 1984 before heartlanders took a breath. In Kansas, Lori Weir was adamant: “She should take that $70,000 for her security and instead hire social workers to protect her. Her arrogance is breathtaking. She deserves no more security than the average American citizen being terrorized by criminals.”
In the Blue Grass state of Kentucky, Sharon Lynn Hardwick-Wells was less kind: “I could care less about your safety. You don't care about the safety of the people. You don't deserve any protection! I hope your protectors turn their back on you in your time of need. Just like you have turned your back on the people's need. Do I want you to die? Let's just say you wouldn't be missed.”
Carolyn Grimm of Jefferson, MO, came to the discussion with a mea culpa of sorts: “I’m ashamed and embarrassed that that {person} is from Missouri.”
As Edith Ann of Laugh-In would say – before blowing a raspberry – “And that’s the truth.”
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Read more from Sarah Cowgill.
