We sat rapt last night, beyond our bedtime, through a chilling “Frontline” report on those who think their freedom’s infringed if they cannot infringe upon the freedom of others. I’m talking about the assault weapon fetishists who by their mere armed presence on the streets constitutes menacing, a misdemeanor that upon conviction is punishable in New York by up to a year in jail for first-time offenders.
It was scary stuff, a lot of which can be traced to the brayer who lost the last presidential election by seven million votes — and lost the Electoral College too despite its undemocratic tilt. The revolution is coming, they say, but are silent — at least they were in the “Frontline” interviews — as to the revolution’s goals. People want to be free to do what they want to do as long as they don’t harm anyone, said a double-murderer. The police are a menace, they say, look what they did to George Floyd. Do Black lives matter then? They don’t say.
How can you look at what happened at the nation’s Capitol last Jan. 6 and liken it somehow to a tourist outing? And now it’s suggested that that day of infamous lawlessness warrants a candlelight vigil? Pretty soon we’ll hear, Death to intelligence! Long live death! “Muera la inteligencia! Viva la muerte!”
It is true that if people continue to echo patent untruths, or to let the whoppers in high places pass unchallenged, they will get what they deserve — diktats rather than choices at the polling booth. And yet, even in hotly contested elections, the turnout in this country is slim. My hope for 2022 is that the electorate — in contradistinction to what some want — will increase greatly, that more and more of us will arm ourselves with well-reasoned opinions rather than assault weapons, that we will act more selflessly than selfishly, and that we’ll ultimately counter the devolutionaries among us.