Ilhan Omar Earns Backlash After 'Free America Now' Post Triggers Her
“Free America Now” are fighting words to Ilhan Omar.
The controversial congresswoman from Minnesota took to Twitter on Wednesday to blast Tesla CEO Elon Musk for an early-morning post that demanded an end to lockdowns caused by the coronavirus crisis.
But all the Democrat really showed was a fundamental misunderstanding of exactly how many in her adopted country really thinks.
“Billionaires want to continue profiting off your labor even if it means risking millions of lives,” Omar wrote in response to Musk’s tweet.
“They call this ‘freedom.’”
Billionaires want to continue profiting off your labor even if it means risking millions of lives.
They call this “freedom.” pic.twitter.com/9rRKeHDh4m
— Rep. Ilhan Omar (@Ilhan) April 29, 2020
Naturally, Omar got plenty of love in response – it’s a good bet it takes a person with a socialist-friendly mindset to be following Omar’s tweets in the first place. But there were a fair number of sane people, too, with comments Omar and her comrades probably can’t comprehend.
Actually i want to profit off my labor to. Its call working and getting paid.
— Black Stang. (@woody_61953) April 29, 2020
I want to work . So do all normal people
— Brad (@Versastyles_) April 29, 2020
FAKE NEWS!!!! Billionaires want to put their workers back to work so their workers can make their mortgage payments and pay their bills! #OPENAMERICANOW
— Andrea Chavez-Moore (@mamagrizly) April 29, 2020
As many social media users responded, most consider the life Americans were living prior to the appearance of the coronavirus in China in November what they call “freedom” — the liberty to travel and work as individuals see fit for their own needs and the needs of their families.
They also understand that the “billionaires” the left despises are a major source of financial capital and employment opportunities in the country — and that their industries actually produce goods and services Americans want.
Individuals engaging in a free exchange of time and labor in return for money from individuals and businesses that can afford to pay it is pretty much how the nation was built (The New York Times and its “1619 Project” notwithstanding).
Obviously, the coronavirus pandemic – courtesy of the communist Chinese government – has changed the world and the country in ways probably no one in the United States imagined back in the halcyon days when the biggest threat the country had to worry about was an insane attempt to impeach President Donald Trump on ginned-up charges that, three months removed, seem almost hallucinatory. (Adam Schiff fabricating quotes from the president? An “anonymous” whistleblower?)
But it’s important to point out that Musk’s “Free America Now” post was the last in a thread that started with his drawing attention to a commentary piece published by The Wall Street Journal on Sunday that raised serious questions about how effective lockdowns really are in affecting the spread of the coronavirus.
It’s also important to point out that, in a related tweet, Musk acknowledged the need to proceed with “care and appropriate precaution.”
In short, Musk apparently didn’t just take to Twitter at 2 a.m. demanding his serfs be whipped back to their toil after bemoaning the money he’s losing from the lockdowns – though CNBC has reported that Musk’s Tesla was forced to push back plans to reopen a Fremont, California, plant because Alameda County officials had extended coronavirus-related restrictions through the end of May.
There are many serious people questioning whether the lockdowns that have stifled the American economy are actually having the effect they’re intended to.
The number of protests around the country by Americans demanding to be free of government restrictions shows it isn’t just billionaires who are ready for life to return to normal – and to assume the risks that that return would entail.
That kind of individual responsibility might be anathema to Omar and her ilk, but not for the millions of Americans who’ve lost patience with life in limbo.
And Omar drew plenty of blowback from that quarter.
I don’t being told by the government what I can and cannot do. I also don’t like being lectured by a congresswoman who’s STILL GETTING PAID while the rest of America is suffering. It’s not millions of lives. Your plan to destroy America won’t work democrats. People are waking up.
— Jacob (@DarthShadow90) April 29, 2020
Elon Musk has done more in advancing the Human well being than you ever will. His company advances technological developments, and you do nothing but criticize people for doing so. #disgracefulpoliticians
— Eric Lunn (@CincyELunn) April 29, 2020
Yet here you are receiving a taxpayer funded paycheck for the stellar work you’re doing in Congress…?
— Moonz?? (@MOONER75) April 29, 2020
A member of the radical “squad” like Omar doesn’t have to like it, but the United States wasn’t built by a population that waited for government orders – or lived for government handouts.
It was built by men and women who were willing to work and fight and die for something called “freedom.”
And unlike Omar, they knew and know what the word means.
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