The headline from CNBC isn’t precisely what you’d expect. “Inflation Is Top Problem Facing America, with No Other Issue Coming Close.” The product of a Pew Research Poll, the results measured a dozen “concerns” from guns and violence to school, healthcare, racism, and COVID.
Here’s the snapshot from the poll.
Can you smell the Pew in this poll? Climate change 42%. That’s an outlier. Climate Change rarely rises from the bottom unless you oversample Democrats but look at inflation AND where COVID landed? Dead last.
Unemployment – not a big concern in this poll (they must not have polled people looking for workers) – beats it by 4 points. Racism is also low on this list, as is infrastructure.
But if this is accurate, COVID is no longer a big deal to most Americans, which is a vast improvement. Everyone is acting like they are supposed to when the flu comes to town. It’s the flu in May. But is it an act? If the “powers that be” hit the shiny candy apple red button again, will enough Americans bend the knee the way they did the last time?
Will the wallflowers who took a tentative step toward liberty during the last dance wilt under the fresh heat of tyranny or grab it by the b***s and tell it to go to hell?
Tossup
People activated by one crisis or event can become well-rounded, long-term activists for liberty, but most will not. A few will get a little too radicalized by a cause. Maybe burn bright and then burn out. But most will get worn out by the unrelenting Left, which is what the Left does. The Democrats are the Nazis bombing London only no breaks between raids. They come at you on TV, in movies, on the radio, in print, at work, school, on social media, and everywhere.
And no matter how crazy you might be, the Left can plug you into something now and keep that crazy going. Recruitment appears easy.
Liberty is different, and to be honest, the Republican Party doesn’t truly understand that or can’t operate alongside it; take your pick. Look at how few Republican governors stood up for it and the rights protected by our Constitutions during COVID.
Liberty is so easy it’s hard. It’s not a sound bite, a long weekend away, or even one political campaign. Defending it is a lifelong life choice. Look at Rand Paul or his dad Ron. You don’t have to agree with them on everything, but you have to agree they are in it for liberty.
As I wrote in my Memoriam to the passing of Ed Nail and John Irish,
Ed and John were in it for the long haul, come what may. And they woke up, maybe not every morning but most, with an idea about how they could help, what it would require of them, and they did that.
We cannot replace them; we can only succeed them. And not like them but in their spirit, because the battle against tyranny is eternal, as is the desire for liberty but tyranny never rests, so – like them – neither shall we.
Liberty is messy, and the Left has trained people to be afraid of it. To accept constraints in exchange for assurances never delivered. Promises that are never kept. Lies propped up by lies. But people still believe. It is why 42% of those in this poll actually think the climate is a thing and that (here’s the bigger lie) the government could do anything but make life worse either way.
And inflation killed COVID. Even Democrats and left-leaning independents think higher prices are the most significant concern. For how long? Are we paying attention until a new narrative starts trending? That’s the way of things these days but is it too late for that narrative to be liberty?
Liberty is sexy, and it’s yours to do with as you like with a few boundaries. Has America evolved beyond that or can we get it back? Can the threat to liberty posed by whatever the Feds are doing this week ever be the biggest concern in America?
Only if your state decides to make it so? And only you can make that happen.
It’s not lost, but it can’t find its way back without you. Every day, any way you can. “Because the battle against tyranny is eternal, as is the desire for liberty but tyranny never rests, so – like them – neither shall we.”
