Feehery: A Republican Congress is needed to fight left’s slide to autocracy

The progressive left is pushing America towards authoritarianism. Electing a Republican Congress is the only way to stop them.

Authoritarian regimes control the media.

Most of the mainstream media is firmly controlled by the progressive left. Anybody within that media structure who dares question the narrative pushed by the progressives is immediately canceled. Honest debate is not valued, it is feared.

Five huge media companies — Google, Facebook, Twitter, Apple and Amazon — now control what is acceptable in the dominant media narrative and what it unacceptable. Not surprisingly, the Biden administration has put intense pressure on these messaging monopolies to become better arbiters of what constitutes truth (in their minds) and what constitutes dangerous heresy.

There is no longer a free market of ideas in America. It is not allowed. 

This is what happens in authoritarian societies. 

Authoritarian regimes politicize the military.

Mark Milley said the quiet part out loud when he promised to intervene if President Trump got out of line during the last election.

But Milley’s admission was only a further confirmation of what we have known for four years. The military didn’t like Trump’s rejection of the Cold War consensus, nor did they like his promise to end endless wars. 

They, along with the intelligence community, leaned in to take him out. 

And now we have a Defense secretary, Lloyd Austin, who wants to purge the military of all Trump supporters.

This is not normal. This is not healthy. This is what happens in authoritarian regimes.

Authoritarian regimes are propped up by the elite, while the proletariat suffers. 

For the bulk of the Trump years, the  working class wages increased at a record pace.   

But during the COVID-19 shutdowns, promoted mostly by the experts and the left, the working class suffered the most, while the fancy people, with their big houses and estates, their private schools, their large stock portfolios, and their work-from-home sensibility, did quite well, thank you very much.

The COVID-19 crisis was promoted by those who hated President Trump and it worked to undermine his near-certain reelection. The elite, offended by Trump’s mean tweets, were more than happy to see him depart the stage. And even now, he is unable to post anything on Twitter or Facebook. This is the modern equivalent of being exiled to Elba.

Authoritarian regimes usually deploy young believers to compel compliance and submission. 

The French Revolution had the Jacobins. The Russian Revolution had the Bolsheviks. Mao had the Red Guard. Hitler had the Brownshirts.

The progressives now have those type of people who follow Kyrsten Sinema into the bathroom to intimidate her into voting for a budget-busting, inflation-causing, tax-raising reconciliation bill. These protesters are also trying to intimate Brett Kavanaugh by harassing his family at home as the Supreme Court considers landmark legal cases in the next term. 

These are the same people who attacked those who attended Trump’s 2016 presidential inauguration, who rioted throughout America in 2020 and who still occupy Portland and Seattle. 

These leftists are the primary enforcers of cancel culture on social media and get private citizens fired from their jobs if they say or believe the wrong things. 

Authoritarians change democratic norms. For them, the ends justify the means, and if the rules or the Constitution prove to be obstacles to their desired aims, they must be changed.

Thus, the progressive left demands the end of the legislative filibuster and demand that Democrats pack the Supreme Court.   

They also want to change voting laws to make it easier for their team to win elections. This is the top priority for congressional Democrats. 

Authoritarians don’t know initially that they are the authoritarians. They think they are doing all of this —  stifling dissent, locking people in their homes, harassing legislators and jurists, changing the Constitution and canceling those who disagree with them — because they believe they are righteous and moral and just. 

That makes them exceptionally dangerous to the cause of liberty and freedom.

A Republican Congress might not seem like enough to stop the slide to autocracy. But it’s a start. And at the moment, it’s the only choice we have. 

Feehery is a partner at EFB Advocacy and blogs at www.thefeeherytheory.com. He served as spokesman to former Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.), as communications director to former Rep. Tom DeLay (R-Texas) when he was majority whip and as a speechwriter to former House Minority Leader Bob Michel (R-Ill.).