Rebekah Mercer: “America is now a society that threatens, pillories, and harms those who dare to question the status quo. But questioning the status quo is more important now than ever.”

Ms. Mercer is right.There are people who believe they have the moral right to (try to) intimidate and harass anyone who dares stray from the official narrative. If you are in the way of collectivism you are an enemy and as such a target.

But we the thinking people of this country have an obligation to stare the bullies down. Anyone who is afraid of debate, who embraces the idea that conflicting ideas can’t even be heard, is a coward. Flat out. Anyone who is anti-speech concedes the high ground from the outset. Totalitarians freak out when their assumptions are challenged, and those of us who believe in the Enlightenment, in the dignity of humanity, in the sanctity of speech, in the sovereignty of the individual, and the illuminating effect of reason, have an obligation to ourselves and to the world to make sure the totalitarians freak out. (And ultimately lose.)

Ms. Mercer explains who she is in the op-ed below. She is not the monster that the trope builders seek to portray. She is reasonable. She is thoughtful. Unlike many of the people attacking her.

(From The Wall Street Journal)

Last month a writer for the Financial Times suggested mysteriously that my “political goals are something she has never publicly defined.” In broad strokes this is what I believe:

I believe in a kind and generous United States, where the hungry are fed, the sick are cared for, and the homeless are sheltered. All American citizens deserve equality and fairness before the law. All people should be treated with dignity and compassion. I support a United States that welcomes immigrants and refugees to apply for entry and ultimately citizenship. I reject as venomous and ignorant any discrimination based on race, gender, creed, ethnicity or sexual orientation.

As a federalist, I believe that power should be decentralized, with those wielding it closely accountable to the people they serve. There is obviously a role for the federal government. But I support a framework within which citizens from smaller political entities—states, counties, cities, towns and so on—can determine the majority of the laws that will govern them. Society’s problems will never be solved by expensive, ineffective and inflexible federal programs.

Click here for the article.

http://www.againstcronycapitalism.org/