“I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it,” – Voltaire
The French writer and devoted defender of free speech had not heard about “3REICH” and “FUHRER” vehicle license plates in Alaska. He would not recognize the Democrats of 2021 as a party that once, if only for a few short years, championed constitutional rights.
Over the weekend, Democrat activists in the state accused this writer of being a Nazi, a Nazi sympathizer, and a fascist. This is their playbook — Pick the target, freeze it, personalize it, in the Saul Alinsky tactics they use. MRAK is that target.
Until you’re called a Nazi, you really haven’t lived on the wild side. After all, that is about the lowest form of life, down with rapists, and murderers. In some circles, it is the fashionable way to dehumanize people who have a different viewpoint in life. “They’re Nazis” is all the rage now, on the Left.
In fact, the Left has now reached “Godwin’s Law,” or the Godwin rule of Nazi analogies. It goes like this: the longer an online discussion goes, the probability of a comparison involving Nazis or Hitler approaches 1.” And that is exactly where Democrats have found themselves on Twitter — they can be counted on to spew the “N” word on any given day. The word just slips out automatically.
This writer has no specific position on the 3REICH license plate that two Alaska attorneys are complaining about on Twitter and that Rep. Sara Hannan is asking the Division of Motor Vehicles to revoke. Perhaps a 4REICH would be more concerning to this writer — after all the Third Reich is so far in the past that hardly anyone living remembers the actual Nazi Regime; they just remember the stories and the lessons. One commenter says he knows the family who owns the plate, and they are not Nazis or Nazi sympathizers. But who knows?
As for “Fuhrer,” there is a former well-known National Education Association president from Alaska named Ron Fuhrer who might object to being called a Nazi, just because he inherited a German name from his father.
None of that can soothe the rage of the extremists and hate-mongers of the Left, including the MidnightSunAK blog, which has decided to try to deplatform Must Read Alaska.
Having a reasonable dialogue about why that license plate was ever issued doesn’t fit the narrative of the Left. The destruction of conservatives, however, is blood sport.
It’s sad that the Democratic Party and its surrogates have now become the party of hate speech (calling someone a Nazi is hate speech) and anti-free speech.
Their drift toward totalitarianism since those heady days of the 1960s is stunning.
For this writer, I won’t die on a hill for Nazis or race-baiters. Racial superiority is not a concept to defend. I won’t debate hateful people on social media, either.
I will, however, die on the hill for the First Amendment, and the right of people everywhere to express themselves without the government curbing their rights of free speech. (Unless, of course, government is paying for the University of Alaska artwork depicting the decapitated head of President Trump. That, I’ll continue to argue, is a misappropriation of public funds. And no yelling fire in a theater, please.)
In the case of license plates, who can say what the panel from the Division of Motor Vehicles will do with “3REICH” or ‘FUHRER.” They will have to discuss them, now that a legislator has made a request that the plates be revoked. And because of the viciousness from the Left, it’s doubtful the panel will be able to take the pressure of being called Nazi sympathizers.
How would you judge these plates if you were on the the panel?
What if you discovered that the first was on an auto owned by the son of President Clinton’s Labor Secretary Robert Reich? That would be a Robert Reich III, since Robert Reich is the son of Robert Reich, a Jewish immigrant. Would that color your perception?
What if the other was owned by Filthy Fuhrer, the Alaska man (and convicted killer) who got a judge (an African American judge, at that) to allow him to legally change his name from Timothy Lobdell in 2017?
If someone’s name is Adolf, would that be allowed on his license plate? How about the alternate spelling, Adolph?
A story in Vice magazine describes a documentary, “Meet the Hitlers,” about the unusual and diverse people with a very distinctive and unfortunate last name, and how some of them changed their names, while others did not.
Could the “H” name go on a license plate in this day and age of political correctness or would it be subject to savage social media attacks?
How about Pol Pot, of the Khmer Rouge, who was responsible for the deaths of 1.5 to 2 million Cambodians, who perished from starvation, execution, disease or overwork under that regime?
Or Mao Zedong, the Chinese leader responsible for the deaths of as many as 70 million Chinese, as a name on a license plate? Can Mao go on a plate? Fidel? Che?
These questions are not meant to provoke rage from the Left, (although they will) but thoughtfulness from all who truly are interested in dialogue.
But beware, that is not where hard-left political operators are coming from these days.
Taking their cues from Antifa, and led in Alaska by the most hardened, cynical, and calloused lawyer of them all, Scott Kendall, (Recall Dunleavy and Alaskans for Better Elections) they are going full scorched earth. They’re coming for Must Read Alaska today, but keep in mind, conservatives, they’ll come for you tomorrow — to deplatform you, strip you from your revenues, cancel you from your job, and as Juneau’s Chris Dimond has stated, run you out of the state altogether.
The straightforward story that offended Scott Kendall’s & Co:
