The Crushing Boot Of Tyranny

     Two recent items in the public sphere of attention may at first seem to have nothing to do with each other, but upon closer inspection they are part and parcel to the same dangerous cancer that is spreading through our society like a wild fire. I am making reference to Los Angeles Clipper's owner Donald Sterling being forced to sell the team he has owned for over thirty years, and fifty United States senators signing a letter penned by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid to the Washington Redskins organization "requesting" they change their name in order to be politically correct.
     In both situations, the tyranny of political correctness is the driving force, whether the instrument of that tyranny is the National Basketball Association commissioner Adam Silver, or it is fifty senators from the U.S. senate. In the case of the latter, it is also illustrative of an abuse of authority by politicians with an agenda. Nowhere in the U.S. Constitution, even in the most extreme interpretation, can one find support for the senate to send a letter of intimidation to an individual or organization, the aim of such a letter being to impose a radical agenda upon private citizens or enterprises.
     In the Donald Sterling case, as offensive as many may have found his comments, they were uttered in private and recorded against California state law. For Adam Silver to use his position to compel adherence to the code of Leftist political correctness, is not only dictatorial, but violates the basic fairness of American values. Because in America, one is free to hold any view one wishes, as long as that view does not cause criminal behavior. And even then, the criminal act should be punished, not the thoughts.
     In  the case of Harry Reid's letter to the Redskins' organization, the violation of American values cuts even deeper than in the Adam Silver case. In 2007, Rush Limbaugh said something on his radio show that Harry Reid mangled out of context. He then sent a letter signed by a number of senators to Mr. Limbaugh's syndication partner demanding he be fired. In true Limbaugh style, Rush auctioned the letter on eBay and raised 2.1 million dollars for charity.
    The Letter sent in 2007 to Mr. Limbaugh's syndication partners, and the one sent to the Washington Redskins organization, shows a total lack of respect and fidelity by Harry Reid and others in the United States Senate to the Founders' concept of enumerated powers. Adam Silver and the NBA "punishing" Donald Sterling for not "having his mind right" illustrates just how far down the road of group think we have traveled as a nation.  
     The imposition of authority over liberty is not limited to the United States Senate and the NBA, but has made its way onto college campuses with "speech codes" and "hate free zones." These Orwellian measures are meant to silence all views but one, and all thoughts but those approved by the Leftist intelligentsia, to whom freedom is anachronism. We have become a nation so afraid of riling one group or another's sensitivities, that we have abandon the principles and values that make the United States an exceptional nation. If we continue along this path that leads only to dark desperation, not only will America be the worse for it, but the history of the world yet to be written will be done so under the crushing boot of tyranny.