When "Freedom" and "Patriotism" Are Words Meaning the Opposite

Pre-WWII book burning in Germany.

When “Freedom” and “Patriotism” Are Words Meaning the Opposite

Freedom from Woke, Patriotism to protect Strongmen who promise to fix it

“Freedom’s just another word for nothin’ left to lose…” From the song, Me and Bobby Magee written by Kris Kristofferson & Fred Foster, made famous by singer Janis Joplin

In the Reagan era, Republicans would chant freedom from the rafters. “Tear down this wall” to European communists and get government out of the way so that individual Americans could freely maximize their potential. Patriots fought wars so that people could pursue their dreams without being told what they could not do. A time when individual strengths were prioritized to continue the success we called the United States of America. But that was then.

Today, it’s about protecting all those weak and hapless Americans. The base. Those purported Republicans are protecting good Americans (read: White Christian nationalists) from a litany of horribles: immigrants coming to “replace” us, studying history to its fullest because White people might feel guilty about actual past injustices, doctors who wish to vaccinate us, LGBTQ+ people who are coming for our children, efforts to create diversity, companies who disagree with the social mandates of regional strongmen, less affluent people seeking medical care comparable to what is routinely provided in other countries, helping those who want the 1% to pay the same level of tax assessed by almost every other nation, “creeping socialism,” taking away assault weapons that could insure that White minorities can protect their strongmen and their ideologies, books that do not tow the party line, unpleasant facts that we must deal with (e.g., climate change, AI, social media, etc.), etc., etc. We call all that “woke.”

The saddest part of that reinterpretation of “freedom and patriotism” is that Americans are thus viewed as helpless children that only determined strongmen can protect. And yes, I said strongmen. It’s most definitely not about personal freedom. It’s about those strongmen protecting us from all things “woke.” They most certainly no longer trust the notions of freedom and patriotism that once defined both political parties. Individual Americans are too viewed as too weak to make personal decisions anymore. “Only I can fix it,” is the autocratic rallying cry… With targeted minorities always to take the blame.

The Tsar, the architect of the anti-woke campaign, is Florida Governor Ron DeSantis who has pledged to make the new mediocrity that defines Florida, particularly its public educational system, as his visionary model for the rest of America. Right to life? But gun deaths in states with lax gun laws (like Florida) are, on average, triple what they are in states with genuine gun control. The leading cause of children is now via firearms. Death penalty anyone? But it all starts with controlling the minds of the young.

“DeSantis depicts this process as protecting pupils and students from discomfiting discussions. In fact, he’s keeping Floridians from learning the skills of critical thinking and academic inquiry. His view of the university is of a glorified vocational school. In a speech Monday, he sneered, “If you want to do things like gender ideology, go to Berkeley. ... We don’t want to be diverted into a lot of these niche subjects that are heavily politicized.” (His obviously hand-picked claque responded with cheers for this vacuous spiel.)

“DeSantis has consistently eviscerated LBGTQ+ rights. He has bought into the right-wing hysteria about medical support for transgender youth. Last week, he signed a bill allowing healthcare providers to refuse service to almost anyone due to a ‘conscience-based objectio’” — a rule the LGBTQ+ community properly sees as a license to refuse service to them.” Michael Hiltzik, May 17th Los Angeles Times. In short, DeSantis picks up where Donald “I still insist I won the 2020 election” Trump left off. Both candidates promise retribution against those unwilling to embrace their version of what Mao Zedong called “right thinking” during his cultural revolution in the mid-1960s-70s.

Anti-woke legislation has passed in most red states. Florida remains at the cutting edge, now eliminating DEI (diversity efforts) from Florida public education and well underway in its censorship of lesson plans and book banning. Almost any student or parent in Florida can initiate a complaint that will shut down a lesson plan that remotely touches on gender or racial history… or get a book banned. This lowest common denominator approach has Florida professors and teachers applying for jobs outside of the state.

Those brave parents challenging this system are “at the center of an inflamed culture war that has pitted teachers, librarians and parents against conservative parental rights groups and powerful politicians, including Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who are pressing school boards to remove hundreds of books on gender identity, race, sex education and LGBTQ+ issues. [One challenging mom] was back in front of her Orange County, Fla., school board last month, protesting against censorship… In 2022, a record 1,269 demands were made to forbid books and other materials in schools and libraries nationwide, according to the American Library Assn., up from 156 in 2020. But the book-banning opponents are gaining momentum.” Jeffrey Fleishman writing for the May 16th Los Angeles Times.

Democrats and independents who cherish the real meaning of freedom and patriotism, it’s time to take back those words, return them to their original meaning, and call out this MAGA GOP march to destroy democracy and replace it with its designated strongman dictator.

I’m Peter Dekom, and if independents and Democrats cannot shut down this well-armed march into autocracy now, we are facing the genuine possibility of the Dis-United States of America, a government of the rightwing minority, by the rightwing minority and under its chosen strongman.