Two Kentuckians used Night Two of the Republican National Convention to hit a theme that will drive a backlash against the Democrats this fall, second only to appeals to law and order.
The backlash will be against “cancel culture” and its close cousin “enforced expression,” both of which involve mobs trying to dictate opinion by telling people either what they cannot say or what they must espouse. To be fair, both sides are, to some extent, guilty of both sins. But with the leftist street mobs and the establishment media both extravagantly attacking conservatives (and centrists) in these ways, the backlash will redound to the benefit of Republicans, against the so-called progressive party Democrats.
The theme against cancel culture has arisen in multiple speeches at the Republican convention, but the two speeches that best drove it home were by Kentuckians Nicholas Sandmann and Daniel Cameron. Sandmann was the student at the national March for Life rally who was slandered by numerous major media outlets for wearing a “Make America Great Again” hat while a Native American activist banged a drum in his face. Cameron is Kentucky’s attorney general and the first African American to hold that position.
Sandmann described how the “full war machine of the mainstream media revved up into attack mode” against him based on incorrect reporting.
“I learned that what was happening to me had a name,” Sandmann said. “It was called being canceled — as in annulled, as in revoked, as in made void. Canceled is what’s happening to people around this country who refuse to be silenced by the far Left.”
“Many are being fired, humiliated, or even threatened,” he continued. “Often, the media is a willing participant. But I wouldn’t be canceled. I fought back hard to expose the media for what they did to me and won a personal victory. While much more must be done, I look forward to the day that the media returns to providing balanced, responsible, and accountable news coverage.”
For his part, the extremely impressive Cameron, like the wonderful South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott the night before, has been particularly subject to this nasty phenomenon because he is a black man who dares to propound conservative beliefs. He rightly described the “radical Left” as “a movement committed to cancel culture and the destruction of public discourse. They believe your skin color must dictate your politics. If you fail to conform while exercising your God-given right to speak and think freely, they will cut you down.”
Cameron continued, “The politics of identity, cancellation, and mob rule are not acceptable to me, and Republicans trust you, the people, to think for yourselves and to pursue your American dream however you see fit.”
More and more, people are becoming enraged by cancel culture and by enforced expression of the sort attempted in recent days by white wokesters trying to force innocent restaurant diners to give the “black power” salute. These tactics aren’t idealistic. They’re totalitarian. They have their roots in the “struggle sessions” promoted by China’s murderous Mao Zedong. As aptly explained last year by Peggy Noonan, for this sort of mob behavior, “it was important always to have a jeering crowd. It was important that the electric feeling that comes with the possibility of murder be present … The victims were accused, berated, assaulted.”
Joe Biden’s Democrats still have not found anywhere near an adequate voice, or courage, to denounce cancel culture and struggle sessions — perhaps because they inwardly approve or they cannot afford to upset their base. Well, most people don’t approve, and many are going to punish the Democrats at the polls because of it.
