Penna Dexter

The early battles in the new Congress concern how much authority this new progressive government will amass unto itself. HR1 would transfer to the federal government the traditional role of states in running their elections. The Equality Act would require public and private institutions nationwide to privilege LGBT identities over common sense and religious liberties. As lawmakers fight over totalitarian policies, a soft totalitarianism is rising, revealing a more insidious means of controlling Americans. It is not governmental or political but is instead perpetrated by corporations and educational institutions. Spencer Klaven is Associate Editor at Claremont Review of Books and The American Mind. In a piece for The Daily Wire, he observes, “there is a deeply felt sense in the air right now that the most important fights are being fought in a wholly new arena, with wholly new rules.” He describes three “tectonic” forces underlying the current state of affairs in America. They are the cancel culture, the disappearing president, and the internet. Amazon controls what we can and cannot read. Social media giants cancel people for their opinions, censoring mostly conservative, pro-life speech, and opinions that declare moral precepts that were recently mainstream. Freedom of thought in academia is nearly extinct. At elite private high schools, left-leaning parents fear reprisal if they object when their kids are made to feel like racists. Universities enforce woke dogma. Spencer Klaven mentions one New York student who, after criticizing the current “anti-racist” regime, warned, ”If you publish my name, it would ruin my life.” The media’s light touch in covering the president is unsurprising. But Mr. Klaven says he “did not foresee the totality of Biden’s disappearance from the scene.” America wonders, “who’s in charge?” The internet poses problems and solutions. Mr. Klaven points to a race ”between the censorious gatekeepers of our failed elite class, and the chaotic new energy released by digital technology.” Believing saints, take courage. For now, you can influence who’s in charge.