{"id":21012,"date":"2024-11-02T08:33:28","date_gmt":"2024-11-02T12:33:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/?p=21012"},"modified":"2024-11-02T08:59:45","modified_gmt":"2024-11-02T12:59:45","slug":"kamalas-freedom-from-freedom-hoax","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/2024\/11\/02\/kamalas-freedom-from-freedom-hoax\/","title":{"rendered":"Kamala’s “Freedom from Freedom” Hoax"},"content":{"rendered":"

American Conservative, November 2, 2024<\/h3>\n

Kamala\u2019s \u201cFreedom From Freedom\u201d Hoax<\/a><\/h2>\n
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Don\u2019t be fooled\u2014the Harris campaign promises old-fashioned government paternalism.<\/p>\n

by James Bovard<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

In her closing spiel at the Ellipse on Tuesday night, Vice President Kamala Harris was flanked by giant banners with the word FREEDOM.\u00a0Harris returned to her Democratic National Convention theme, along with the \u201cjoy\u201d and \u201cpositive vibes\u201d motifs that marked the launch of her campaign after President Joe Biden\u2019s defenestration.\u00a0Tuesday night\u2019s theme echoed her website pitch: \u201cVice President Harris and Governor Walz are fighting for a New Way Forward<\/a> that protects our fundamental freedoms…\u201d<\/p>\n

But Harris is offering a vast expansion of federal power cloaked with a venerable idea<\/strong>l. Traditional American freedom rests upon the constitutional and legal rights of American citizens\u2014rights that restrain government officials from domineering citizens\u2019 lives. Kamala Freedom requires unlimited interventions to deliver whatever benefits politicians decree.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Speaking almost in the shadow of the White House, Kamala again promised to give Americans \u201cfreedom from gun violence.\u201d\u00a0The Second Amendment of the Bill of Rights pledged in perpetuity that Americans\u2019 right to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed. But Americans won\u2019t have \u201cfreedom from gun violence\u201d unless government controls every trigger in the land. Harris previously supported banning<\/a> private ownership of pistols, warrantless searches<\/a> of people\u2019s homes to inspect their firearms, and confiscating<\/a> the most popular rifle in America. Disarming Americans will leave them in total dependency on the same politicians who lied to confiscate their guns in the first place.<\/strong><\/p>\n

In a speech last Martin Luther King Jr. Day, Harris promised to safeguard \u201cfreedom from fear<\/a>, violence, and harm.\u201d Pledging \u201cfreedom from fear\u201d entitles politicians to seize power over anything that frightens anyone. People who sound the alarm about excessive government power will be guilty of subverting freedom from fear.<\/strong> Would the Biden-Harris administration justify its false claims on a decrease in national violent crime rates to provide \u201cfreedom from fear\u201d\u2014even if it were a delusion?<\/p>\n

Kamala Freedom depends on politicians having unlimited sway to decree who pays what\u2014or who pays nothing.<\/strong> Harris bragged, \u201cPresident Biden and I are removing obstacles to financial freedom.<\/a> We have forgiven $167 billion in student loan debt for more than 4.7 million people.\u201d Biden and Harris have trumpeted their contempt for rulings by the Supreme Court and other federal courts striking down the student debt forgiveness schemes as illegal. But fidelity to the Constitution is a paltry benefit compared to letting politicians scatter benefits and buy votes across the land.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Kamala will deliver \u201cfreedom from inequality\u201d by seizing boundless sway to determine who gets what. Her Opportunity Economy will deliver \u201cequity,\u201d which Harris defines as equal results<\/a>: \u201cSome people need more so we all end up in the same place.\u201d How much more? It\u2019s a secret. Which groups receive more? You\u2019ll find that out after you elect Harris. (No wonder she dodges interviews where she would be pressured to\u00a0explain how she will use the power she seeks.)<\/p>\n

Harris endlessly proclaims: \u201cI believe in the fundamental freedom of Americans to make decisions about their own bodies and not have the government tell them what to do.\u201d Unless, of course, politicians want to forcibly inject citizens with experimental vaccines<\/a>. Harris has shown no remorse for the vaccine mandate that Biden decreed after he falsely promised<\/a> that the vaccines would prevent Americans from getting or transmitting Covid.<\/p>\n

The key to Kamala Freedom is that government victims don\u2019t count\u2014they simply don\u2019t exist for official scoring<\/strong>.\u00a0Thousands of women<\/a> were wrongfully fired for refusing to comply with Biden\u2019s illegal vaccine mandate, which he issued in September 2021 and which the Supreme Court struck down in January 2022 (except for health care workers).\u00a0But, unlike the women who oppose limits on abortion, those who lost their jobs due to illegal vaccine mandates have been totally ignored by Harris and other politicians.<\/p>\n

A Harris campaign video promised to deliver \u201cfreedom from extremism.\u201d In Washington, anyone who doesn\u2019t worship government is considered an extremist. Distrusting the federal government is extremism at its worst. So Americans won\u2019t have true freedom until politicians forcibly suppress any idea they label as immoderate.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Harris is hellbent on giving Americans \u201cfreedom from misinformation,\u201d regardless of how many people must be muzzled.<\/strong> In her first presidential campaign in 2019, Harris vowed to crack down on social media companies that refused to kowtow: \u201cIf you don\u2019t police your platforms, we are going to hold you accountable<\/a>.\u201d\u00a0Her Vice Presidential nominee, Minnesota\u2019s Gov. Tim Walz, bluntly declared, \u201cThere\u2019s no guarantee to free speech<\/a> on misinformation or hate speech, and especially around our democracy.\u201d But the First Amendment explicitly bans any federal Ministry of Truth. Harris effectively ignored the federal court decisions<\/a> condemning the sweeping covert censorship by the Biden administration.<\/p>\n

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Harris has also promised Americans \u201cthe freedom to simply be.\u201d Does she intend to provide new subsidies for psychobabble? Will Harris appoint a \u201cSimply Be Czar\u201d?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Harris promises liberty via unleashing Leviathan.\u00a0And there is no danger to freedom because Harris is the best friend and protector that any citizen could want. Well, at least any good citizen\u2014defined as people who submit and live as they are told. But how can doubtful citizens have \u201cfreedom from fear\u201d that their rulers think they are garbage, as President Biden said of all Trump supporters on Tuesday night?<\/p>\n

Kamala Freedom is simply a new label for old-time paternalism. It presumes that citizens will be better off forced to rely on political promises rather than inviolable legal and constitutional rights. And if Kamala wins, any cavils about the wisdom of that switcheroo could vanish very quickly.<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n