With apologies to Pete Seeger, and the 5,000 acts who covered his song.
Where have all the liberals gone?
Long time passing.
Where have all the liberals gone?
Long time ago.
Where have all the liberals gone?
Young progressives canceled them, every one.
When will they ever learn, when will they ever learn?
Longing for liberals
Do you remember liberals, those principled freaks of yesteryear, out of step with mainstream society by demanding free speech for all, including those they didn’t like?
Usually all Democrats, they fought for and won the right to burn the American flag, even though it offended most citizens.
They were so principled in defending a liberal culture they fought for neo-Nazis’ right to parade in places like Skokie Illinois, because even despicable people have a right to say what they want, the way they want to say it.
These liberals angered both social conservatives and feminists by protecting pornographers like Larry Flint of the skin rag “Hustler,” even though they were greatly offended by the misogyny and vulgarity in its pages.
These liberals laughed at jokes by censored comics like Lenny Bruce. They fought for school libraries to have copies of Huckleberry Finn, even if it was replete with the N-word. They populated organizations like the ACLU and People for the American Way.
But these Democrats passed “long time ago.”
Or maybe this one. Fill in the blank: “The ends don’t justify the ________.” (The answer we were looking for was “means.” The ends don’t justify the … means.)
Modern progressives have rewritten that sacred pledge to read, “The ends justify everything and anything.”
Are there still liberal Democrats in Colorado? Like UFO sightings, there are rumors of their existence but no verifiable proof. If they exist, they are afraid to speak up for fear of being canceled by their socialist, coerced-speech overlords now in power.
And what a shame it is, too. Free speech has never been under attack like it is now. Don’t believe me? Go refuse to bake a cake celebrating something against your religion. By the way, ever notice progressives only sue Christian cake bakers? You’d think Muslim cake bakers are much more likely to refuse to create a cake celebrating a gay marriage. Hmmmmm.
Pronoun policing
If principled Democrats weren’t hiding themselves like Anne Frank’s family, hoping not to be found and eliminated, they might take after their ancestors and fight coerced speech, like Colorado’s House Bill 1312.
Beyond disempowering parents’ right to raise their own kids and outlawing gender-based uniforms in schools, this bill not only prohibits misgendering or “deadnaming” a person in public, but it also makes it a “discriminatory act” under the Colorado Anti-Discrimination Act.
The pronoun police are becoming the pronoun police, judge and executioner.
Deadnaming is calling someone who has “transitioned” gender by his old name, and with this bill, even if he hasn’t officially changed his name.
Misgendering means referring to a man with gender dysphoria and who identifies as a woman, as, well, a man. In other words, this law would criminalize telling the truth.
That’s worth repeating: The coercion-crazed progressive left is so maniacally out of control they’re making speaking the provable truth a crime. Calling a biological male, by the word “man” would be an unlawful “discriminatory act.” The truth-teller would be open to unknown costs, legal hassles and punishments.
But let’s go down the rabbit hole with Alice for a moment and imagine that when a man identifies as a woman his chromosomes magically change from XY to XX. Calling him a man would then be a hurtful lie. Wait, didn’t the neo-Nazis in Skokie do basically the same, say hurtfully lie saying certain races were genetically inferior?
Back then Democrats fought for free speech so Nazis could lie. Today they coerce speech and make truth a hate crime.
Though calling a trans woman a “biological man” will become a crime, it will still be encouraged to call those of us who use pronouns accurately “ignorant, hater, and fascist.”
Democrat liberals of yore used to call that double-standard “chilling free speech.” And a candy bar cost a dime.
Jon Caldara is president of the Independence Institute, a free market think tank in Denver.
