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Ray Haynes

What If This Was the Real Test – And We Have Failed?

My first rule of politics reads: Democrats lose elections because, once elected, they keep their campaign promises. Republicans lose because, once elected, they break theirs. Republicans claim to stand for freedom. Now is the time when the “rubber meets the road.” Lawsuits, press conferences, and objections are fine, but they are not enough.

Ronald Reagan once said:

Perhaps you and I have lived with this miracle too long to be properly appreciative. Freedom is a fragile thing and is never more than one generation away from extinction.It is not ours by inheritance; it must be fought for and defended constantly by each generation, for it comes only once to a people. Those who have known freedom and then lost it have never known it again.” (Reagan’s First Gubernatorial Inaugural Address, January 5, 1967).

Perhaps we have lived with this miracle too long. I thought there were those in elected office who were willing to fight for freedom. Maybe I expect too much. I have served with many of them, seen them in action. People from a variety of walks of life, who have told the voters of their city, county, or district, that they will stand for freedom. This is the time to make good on that promise.

Recently, Jordan Duncan, a police officer in Lodi, California was fired from his job because he refused to enforce the unconstitutional lock down order. That is a hero of freedom. When public health officials tried to shut down a waffle house in Fresno, the customers of that business stood in front of the doors, protecting the business and repelling the bureaucrats. Those citizens are heroes of freedom. Police officers in Fresno, called in by the bureaucrats, tried to obtain “voluntary compliance” from the patrons. That action betrayed their oath of office, to “uphold the Constitution” of the United States. Those police have betrayed the American traditions of freedom and Constitutional limits on government.

Elon Musk said he was re-opening his business no matter what the government says. One of the Arrogant-Lazy-Authoritarians-in-Training (ALAIT), Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez, in typical Arrogant Lazy Authoritarian style, said “F*** Elon Musk. California’s Arrogant-Lazy-Authoritarian-In-Chief (ALAIC) Gavin Newsom said the shut down of Musk’s business wasn’t his fault. Yes.It.Was. He issued the order to shut the business down, the buck stops there. Elon Musk is a hero of freedom. ALAIT Gonzalez and ALAIC Newsom have betrayed this country and its values. It’s that simple.

No more silence from Republicans. No more “this is not our fault” resolutions like the one issued by Riverside County Supervisors. If you enforce any of the orders, it is your fault, whether you are a cop, a public health official, or an elected official. You can stand up to the order by simply saying no to the Governor. You have a choice.

No more press conferences. Take action. Protests are good, lawsuits are good. I don’t want to discourage anyone from raising public awareness and garnering public support for a boycott of the order. But, we need a boycott of the order, regardless of what the Governor, the police, or any judge says.

The way to boycott the order is live your life. Open your business, go to church, go to the beach, go to restaurants, hotels, and other business. They can’t arrest all of us. What they are hoping to do is arrest a few, and scare the rest of us.

For those of you in elected office, tell your bureaucrats to back off. You instruct your police and your regulators to ignore the dictatorial rules imposed by ALAIC Newsom and his minions. If you don’t, you deserve to lose your office. If you have no direct control over bureaucracies, like the Republicans in the Legislature, speak up, encourage local elected officials in your area to stand up to the illegally imposed order by the Governor. Silence is no longer acceptable.

I have long feared that it would be my generation or the generation following mine that would cause freedom to go extinct in the US. Hundreds of thousands of Americans have fought in wars, and died, to defend freedom, and we cower in the corner over a flu virus. Are we that weak? The number of people who have died from the virus are minuscule when compared to those who have died to protect the principles stolen from us by the authoritarians in the name of the virus.

The forces of authoritarianism are flexing their muscles, and we refuse to fight. If we do not fight now, we will have condemned our children and grandchildren to the darkness of evil leaders. Is this the test of our true commitment to freedom? I think it is. And I think we are dangerously close to losing that precious freedom so carefully nurtured, and handed down to us, by our forebears. If we fail now, we will richly deserve the anger and condemnation of our children and grandchildren as they suffer under the government we gave them. If this is our test, right now we are failing.