Cal Thomas: DeSantis Isn't Your Average Establishment Republican - He's Willing to Fight
They have been called many things: amoebas, spineless cowards, weaklings and other names not suitable for print in a family newspaper.
The modern characterization for many politicians who refuse to take a stand, especially in the midst of the growing and rapid threat of American socialism, is the word “weenie.”
People fear being called names for expressing personal convictions (assuming they have any) and so they either say nothing or they go along to get along.
Not Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida, who increasingly resembles the type of leader the country needs as the Biden administration appears to try and transform us into a nation the polar opposite of what the Founders intended and the Constitution prescribes.
Following President Biden’s criticism of Texas and Florida for refusing to bow to Washington dictates, shifting CDC vaccination and mask “guidelines” and the delta variant — and by implication their governors — DeSantis fired back.
Responding to Biden’s statement that if DeSantis and Texas Gov. Greg Abbott won’t help fight the pandemic, they should “get out of the way,” DeSantis responded at a news conference. I will quote him at length because it is important for the context and to sense the power behind his words.
“I think the question is, we can either have a free society or we can have a biomedical security state. … Joe Biden suggests if you don’t do lockdown policies, then you should ‘get out of the way’ … If you’re coming after the rights of parents in Florida, I’m standing in your way.”
He was just getting started: “If you’re trying to deny kids a proper in-person education, I’m gonna stand in your way. … If you’re trying to restrict people and impose mandates and ruin their jobs and livelihood, if you are trying to lock people down, I am standing in your way. I am standing for the people of Florida.”
DeSantis then delivered this rejoinder to Biden: “Why don’t you do your job? Why don’t you get this border secure? And until you do that, I don’t want to hear a blip about COVID from you.”
If that isn’t enough to get your liberty blood boiling, then consider these quotes from two historical figures — and a more recent one — who understood that freedom is not the natural state of humanity, otherwise more of the world would be free.
Liberty must constantly be renewed.
Benjamin Franklin: “Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety.”
Abraham Lincoln: “Those who deny freedom to others deserve it not for themselves.”
Ronald Reagan, who stood up against Soviet communism and was the opposite of a weenie: “Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn’t pass it on to our children in the bloodstream. The only way they can inherit the freedom we have known is if we fight for it, protect it, defend it and then hand it to them with the well-thought lessons of how they in their lifetime must do the same. And if you and I don’t do this, then you and I may well spend our sunset years telling our children and our children’s children what it once was like in America when men were free.”
Liberties lost are difficult to regain. There are plenty of examples in ancient and more contemporary history that prove the point.
Yes, get vaccinated if your doctor approves, but if the above quotes are insufficient for you to stand against the mob of politicians, unelected bureaucrats, teachers unions, medical “experts,” many in the sycophantic media and medical dictators, then you may display all the symptoms of a weenie.
© 2021 TRIBUNE CONTENT AGENCY, LLC.
The views expressed in this opinion article are those of their author and are not necessarily either shared or endorsed by the owners of this website. If you are interested in contributing an Op-Ed to The Western Journal, you can learn about our submission guidelines and process here.
Truth and Accuracy
We are committed to truth and accuracy in all of our journalism. Read our editorial standards.
Advertise with The Western Journal and reach millions of highly engaged readers, while supporting our work. Advertise Today.
