If one had to select what progressives and those on the left do best, it would have to be the concept of exalting the community at the expense of the individual. From communism to socialism, this has always been so. Although the US is a republic, of late we appear to be living in a system of oppressive government overreach. This might be a good time for snarks to say, “Thanks for stating the obvious.” But before we accept this premise, it seems worthwhile to ferret out what liberties have been lost since Joe Biden saddled up behind the Resolute Desk.
Liberty Lost: The Important Stuff
Vast forfeitures of liberty involve freedom of speech – specifically the freedom of political discourse, often referred to as the most protected speech enumerated in the US Constitution. The Jan. 6 nightmare brought catastrophic losses regarding an individual’s civil rights. This includes the right to protest, the right to a speedy trial, and being held in jail for an interminable amount of time without bail.
Government overreach has also intruded upon the nuclear family by a concerted effort to strip American mothers and fathers of their parental rights. When it comes to abortion and changing a child’s gender, the Biden administration stands with the radical left, maintaining parents have subordinate rights when it comes to knowing about these life-altering decisions that their child may be making.
Biden’s cast of leftists believe children should be subjected to Transgender Story Hour, Critical Race Theory, and a host of progressive indoctrination curricula. And when parents attend local school board meetings to protest, they are “tagged” by government authorities as subversives.
What about our economic freedom? In an article for The Hill, Rep. Andy Biggs (R-AZ) wrote, “Under Biden, Americans are not free.” He wrote, “Under President Biden, inflation is the highest in multiple generations — more than 40 years. The economy is shrinking at the same time. Do you feel more, or less, free under Joe Biden?”
Syndicated columnist Cal Thomas may have put it best when he wrote, “The Biden administration is proceeding on a downward spiral that has ended in lost liberties in nations of the past by seizing increasing amounts of power for itself through a slew of executive orders, without the consent of the people or Congress.”
Thomas specified those concerns in Mr. Biden’s EOs regarding gun control and his appointment of a Presidential Commission on the Supreme Court. He concluded, “The Biden administration and the left want the power to make their laws, without constitutional restraints.”
Liberty Lost: The Little Things Matter, Too
(Photo by Smith Collection/Gado/Getty Images)
Credit must be given to The Washington Free Beacon for calling out Biden’s reinstatement of an Energy Department regulation regarding shower heads. The headline told the story: “LOW FLOW Joe: Biden Reverses Trump-Era Shower Head Rule.” Former President Donald Trump lifted an intrusive government imperative that forced plumbers to put water restrictors on shower heads – only for Biden to come back and reinstate it.
In the scheme of things, some might believe this is a trivial matter; however, it isn’t so small to those suffering from arthritis and other movement disorders because water beating forcefully on a sore body can be considered one of the great gifts of indoor plumbing to modern man.
The Department of Energy rule that is supposed to save water was debunked in plain language by former president Trump. As the Free Beacon recounted, “You take a shower, the water doesn’t come out,” Trump said. “You want to wash your hands, the water doesn’t come out. So what do you do? You just stand there longer or you take a shower longer?” This simple logic seems to be lost on Biden & Company.
(Photo By Bruce Bisping/Star Tribune via Getty Images)
Liberty Lost: The Incandescent Light Bulb
To be fair, this bit of government overreach began under the interfering hand of Barack Obama. As a sop to the climate change zealots, the sale of incandescent light bulbs became prohibited in the US on Aug. 1. While there are a few that are still available, like so-called “bug lights” or those that go inside your oven, most are gone from the shelves.
As everyone knows, LED and fluorescent light bulbs cast a blue/green color and don’t have the soft beauty of Thomas Edison’s incandescent. As Liberty Nation’s Andrew Moran wrote when the Trump Administration slowed down the light bulb hysteria, “Perhaps it is time to turn off the lights on mass hysteria and use common sense.”
Thus, there are a series of vital and some not so critical – but still interfering – attacks on an individual’s liberty imposed upon the people by the Biden administration. One can only hope the famed John Adams quote will not ring true in the coming years. He presciently commented, “A Constitution of Government once changed from Freedom, can never be restored. Liberty, once lost, is lost forever.”
