Just a little common sense from the peanut gallery. Leftism is shot through with contradictions, from promoting welfare as empowerment and racism through “Critical Race Theory” (CRT) to promoting “transgenderism” that destroys Title 9 protections for girls. But two recent examples steal the show – lefties are eating their own.
On one end of the country, you have Maine lobstermen (and women, by the way) just trying to make a living – thousands eking out a modest income at sea in ways done for a hundred years. Suddenly, they are pummeled by dark money from environmental activists, told they are evil.
More, they are told they are so evil to whales, several of which have washed ashore dead, so must be put out of business. Now, 80 percent of lobsters consumed in America come from Maine, and liberals – except for Jane Fonda – like them, but no, “lobster persons” must go.
Irony of ironies, the real reason whales are washing up dead (not tied up in line) – as the latest oceanic reporting suggests – is new ships blithely traversing sea lanes to map and install massive wind turbines, a horizon-altering process that also deals death to migratory birds. Increasingly, this appears the culprit, despite frantic activist denials.
So, to correct the record, what should be happening? The wind farms, which will never power your car or stove, should be discontinued, saving whales and birds. But what will happen? No, the environmental lefties, dying for whale equity and loathing lobster, will push on. Lobstermen will be punished, many never having seen a whale, while wind monsters are worshiped.
On the other end of the country, in Alaska, the Biden team this week may deal a crushing blow to that state’s economy, and another blow to the cost of energy. Despite the entire state legislature and bipartisan congressional delegation opposing it, Biden is leaning toward a “compromise” that will either kill the “Willow” oil drilling project in Alaska, or will hamstring it to the point of making it economically unworkable, to “save the environment.”
Incredibly, Mr. hug and sniff your hair, warmhearted Biden, is giving the cold shoulder to Mainers, Alaskans, and Americans trying not to freeze to death in coming hard winters. We will see where federal decisions lead, but at this writing the crazies are winning, with Biden’s aim to nobble Maine lobstering and Alaskan oil – both economic lifelines – well on their way.
The incredible thing in Alaska is, again in the spirit of leftists eating their own and caring nothing for reality, if Biden kills the Willow drilling project that virtually every Alaskan wants, he will deal a body blow to Native American tribes across the state.
Likewise, while there are more than 5,600 Maine lobstermen, many inheritors of this historic trade, many are Indians or Native Americans. In fact, Maine law is explicit in protecting the Maine lobstermen of the “Passamaquoddy Tribe, Penobscot Nation, Aroostook Band of Micmacs, or Houlton Band of Maliseet Indians.”
But never mind, the cause wins, until the next cause calls, until the next leftist aim eats the last one, until one day – once again – the American Dream will replace welfare and CRT, lefties recall their biological daughters matter, wind turbines get rethinking, and lobster love returns.
Or maybe it will be simpler. One day soon, when the lights go off, heater goes cold, and leftists get old, there will be a sudden rebirth of fondness for things old fashioned, the sort that work and let people work, maybe not back to flintlock duels, but perhaps just fossil fuels.
The left is nuts by definition, unpersuadable, sure that communist utopia is around the corner, and will solve all problems, if that dog can only catch his tail, if the proletariat just understands they are in charge, and if people will only learn to pedal while leaders fly. If we can just drive wind-powered cars and scooters, put those evil oil and lobstermen down, all will be well.
Only the fallacy is that normal folk – or as Jimmy Stewart once said, “This rabble you’re talking about…that do most of the working and paying and living and dying” in this country – are not keen on all this. And they are likely to outlive the lefties, too. Do you know why? Because they work, think for themselves, and act on facts, and because they would prefer to eat lobster than their own. Just a little common sense from the peanut gallery.
Robert Charles is a former Assistant Secretary of State under Colin Powell, former Reagan and Bush 41 White House staffer, attorney, and naval intelligence officer (USNR). He wrote “Narcotics and Terrorism” (2003), “Eagles and Evergreens” (2018), and is National Spokesman for AMAC.
