Jan 6 Sets the Tone for Discussions in the Heartland

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.

Another week has come and gone, making Heartlanders, flyover folks, and those of a conservative mind want to recolonize and start this government over in earnest. Between the ridiculous antics of the House speaker debacle, the commemoration of Jan. 6 2021, and an influx of illegal aliens off the Florida coast, either there is a come to Jesus moment on the horizon or an outright rebellion in the works. When the Silent Majority decides to weigh in, they do so with more of a rebel yell than with quiet, polite prose.

Jan 6 Remains Ugly

While Democrats again used the Jan. 6 protest and breach of the US Capitol as fodder for their saving democracy narrative, those demonstrating against the continued imprisonment of dissenters by the government have been denied their First Amendment rights. The week-long peaceful occasion ended when Micki Witthoeft, the mother of Ashli Babbit was arrested: for walking into the road. Heartlanders need no review, but if you missed it, Babbit was fatally shot while attempting to climb through a window leading to the Speaker’s Lobby.

The overzealousness of police led discussions on social media: and the Biden administration is taking a well-deserved beatdown. In Southeastern New Mexico, cattle-rancher Mike Hobbs was incensed: “The mother of Ashley Babbit, the unarmed citizen murdered by our ‘esteemed’ Capitol Police on January 6th., was arrested today....for attempting to have a nonviolent memorial for her murdered daughter. Yet, we are instructed to hold the vermin in our corrupt government above reproach! This cauldron is boiling toward a reckoning.”

In West Dundee, IL, Rob Hermann was shocked at the callousness of police, saying, “A mother wants to know why her daughter was executed by Pelosi’s brown shirts, and no one was held accountable... imagine that.” But what Patricia Hakes in Des Plaines, IL, said hit a collective nerve: “Tell me again what country I am living in.”

So Over McCarthy and the GOP

Flyover folks do not lay the blame for a dismal midterm showing at the Birkenstock-clad feet of the radical left. In fact, they know who to blame for the Republicans barely clinching the House and losing any leverage they had in the Senate: The Grand Old Party itself. From RINOs to right radicals, the lack of teamwork killed the dream. And to top off a tumultuous last two years, House Republicans for days couldn’t get their act together to elect a new speaker.

As Democrats watched with amusement at Republicans’ inability to find consensus, several GOP representatives lost their tempers. First, they tried to bully a positive vote for Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-CA), who is not popular in middle America. Finally, push led to shove when Rep. Richard Hudson (R-NC) grabbed Rep. Mike Rogers (R-AL) to keep him from going nuclear on holdout Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida.

Once everyone was sent to their respective corners (the cloakroom for Rogers) to cool off, a 15th vote was underway, and McCarthy finally ascended to Speaker of the House and third in line to the US presidency.

Liberty Nation’s friend in New Mexico, Mike Hobbs, delivered a scathing statement: “What did America get? We replaced one California Speaker with another California Speaker. How’s that for a benchmark of leadership? Hypocrisy runs fluidly across the Potomac.”

Randall Stine in Judyville, IN, shared his disgust with a bit of humor while imbibing at the veteran-owned Foxhole Pub in the hamlet of Williamsport, IN: “If I had a full face of teeth, I’d run for Congress, and this bull---- speaker vote would be done.”

Ah, Yes, The Illegal Immigration Issue

Near the Florida Keys over the New Year’s holiday weekend, 1,400 Cuban immigrants were rescued at sea. More than 360 illegal aliens then arrived by boat at Dry Tortugas National Park – closing the recreation area to attend to the latest uninvited arrival of migrants.

Those rescued will now have food, water, and medical services while the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) dithers about what to do with them next. Some flyover folks had vacations scheduled at the park, others were disgusted the current administration refuses to help Americans, and then there were the logical questions, like the one Deb Seals of Henderson, NC, posed: “Oh, we can close a national park but not the border? Something is wrong with this asinine thinking.”

Of course, Republican Governor Ron DeSantis did not wait for DHS to do what they do or don’t do; he deployed the National Guard to begin the search, rescue, and roundup of the illegal aliens before they had the opportunity to disperse prior to processing. Several Midwesterners made a few “scrotal circumference” remarks about the proactive governor. Finally, one woman in Houston, Reba Tenery, couldn’t stand the glowing praise anymore: “Once more Florida copies Texas and everyone thinks Florida is a genius.”