Commentary

Phil Robertson for President

by T. Nelson

ome commentators, especially those who came late to the party, don't seem to understand what's been going on here. We all know that the issue of people being intimidated into silence by the PC brigades is an infringement of their freedom of speech. But the fact that it's private citizens and not the government who are at fault is the critical issue. Yes, it may be obvious. But knowing who the enemy is determines what, if anything, can be done about it.

For several decades now, extremists have been going around trying to get anyone who disagrees with them fired from their job and blacklisted to make them unemployable. They use this nasty tactic because the First Amendment prevents them from getting laws against dissident speech passed. For what seems like the first time, someone has stood up to them and won. For those of us who value freedom, it's cause for celebration.

Yet, just as obviously, very few of us have the financial clout of Phil Robertson. Does anyone seriously think that that the blacklisting will stop just because Duck Dynasty survived bullying by the homophobophobes of GLAAD? If so, I've got a bridge you might be interested in.

Maybe this makes me a homophobophobophobe, but my guess is the humorless folks at GLAAD won't be stopped by political pressure. They're not even the real problem. The real problem is the weak-minded bean-counters, lawyers, and HR people who are convinced their company's reputation will be damaged if an employee opens his mouth and says he doesn't approve of homosexuality or gay marriage, quotes something embarrassing out of the Bible, or says something unflattering about some minority.

Anyone who's been in a company knows the type. Some companies are full of quislings who don't think in terms of right and wrong. They know the accusations are meaningless and often false, but they don't care. They cravenly cave to whichever group threatens them the most. They've been doing it so long they've come to accept the ideology of the pressure groups. Throwing out good employees to appease bad pressure groups is, in their mind, just part of the cost of doing business. This corporate weak-mindedness is the real source of the oppressors' power. And until someone applies equal and opposite pressure, making it more expensive to cave, who's to say caving is wrong?

If an outsider came and tried to steal one of their copy machines, they would resist. They might even call the cops, if only they could find the correct form, and if their legal department, after due consideration, gives the okay. Yet when an outsider tries to deprive them of one of their “human resources,” the thought of defending their valuable employee never occurs to them.

There is only one way to stop this: by forming special interest groups that use lawsuits, boycotts, and whatever else it takes to to intimidate employers, lawyers, and political correctness groups.

Financial clout, not the moral rightness of his position, or his courageous defense of his freedom of speech, is what saved Phil Robertson's job. Obviously, the rest of us, who don't have a top-rated TV show, and who aren't able to walk away from our job out of principle, not only can't fight back—unlike Phil, most of us don't have millions of fans willing to start boycotts and write angry editorials for us. The government certainly won't protect us. Our freedom of speech will still be oppressed long after the commentators have found something more fun to write about. For the little guys, it's not WWE. It's real life. We have to choose between our principles and feeding our families.

As a result, our freedom of speech is being eroded. Those who defended the Duck Dynasty family—even those who got drunk and overslept the next day and almost missed it—deserve congratulation. In the long run, though, we will need to create pressure groups to advocate freedom of speech and help ordinary people defend themselves against these destructive tactics. In the meantime we can start by giving a name to what we're up against: GLAADcarthyism.

Phil Robertson would be a good candidate for running this free-speech group, if he was interested. As for making him President of the United States, well, why not? We've had worse.