Justice Alito told the Federalist Society Thursday the pandemic imperils freedom; citing religion, speech and government over-reach. I applaud him because the central ethos of the Conservative Guardian is the triumph of individuals over institutions. Individuals made the USA happen; Smith’s discipline that sustained Jamestown, Washington’s cunning that broke England’s will, Dr. King’s moral arguments that ushered in civil rights, and all the little guys with big ideas.
Great individuals heed their hearts and minds, which is why Lenin forced atheism and Mao forced re-education. They wanted followers, not free thinkers; thereby ensuring today’s Russian kleptocrats and China’s intellectual-property thieves. When a strong central state bans free thinking, it creates sponges that take rather than originate. This is how the AOC-Warren strain of liberalism will kill American dynamism and exceptionalism.
Alito believes the pandemic “has highlighted constitutional fault lines” where judges “compromise principle [and] rationalize any departure from what they are obligated to do.” He cited this year’s court ruling that allowed Nevada’s governor to open casinos and close churches in response to COVID, when “Nevada was unable to provide any justification for treating casinos more favorably than houses of worship.”
The justice warned “in certain quarters religious liberty has fast become a disfavored right [and] an excuse for bigotry [even] when there’s no evidence that anybody (non-believer) has been harmed.” And, as to free speech, Alito noted “tolerance for opposing views is in short supply” in law schools and the “broader academic community.” In his view, an illiberal USA isn’t “inclusive enough to tolerate people with unpopular” beliefs or ideas.
He’s not alone. A new member of Congress, Cuban-American Nicole Malliotakis (R-NY), announced “an anti-socialist squad is forming” to counter Ocasio-Cortez, Omar, Pressley, and Tlaib (“The Squad”). She’s joined by Gimenez and Salazar (R-FL), and Swartz (R-IN) in Congress – with up close and personal views of Cuba and the USSR – to speak truth to the ideas and words of Socialist Democrats, who stand for anti-freedom (e.g. opposition to right-to-work laws).
Consider two AOC tweets. After a voter criticized the Green New Deal, she tweeted, “we’re in charge – and you’re just shouting from the cheap seats.” After Donald Trump Jr’s criticism of socialists, AOC tweeted, “keep it coming, junior, to troll a member of a body that will have subpoena power in a month.” Doesn’t a defender of freedom work for the people and eschew retribution for criticism from the people (even Don Jr.). Thank God for the anti-socialist squad.
Hopefully, a 6-3 originalist high court will stop elitist rules and socialist regulations that infringe upon our rights, if a Republican Senate prevents Biden from uploading (packing) six liberal-activist judges. But, Andrew Yang is imploring leftists to “move” to Georgia, steal the vote, and return to their liberal hives. And there you have it: modern carpetbaggers trying (again) to interfere with Georgia’s state rights. Thank God for Samual Alito.