Free For How Long?

We used to call Western nations -- the United States, Canada, Europe and Australia -- "the free world."  While many people around the world suffered under authoritarian regimes, we had boisterous debates and energic elections.  Our freedom stood in clear contrast to the oppression of the Soviet Union, communist China and Castro's Cuba.

But COVID is erasing that distinction.  The pandemic has resulted in unprecedented oppression in the West.  Dissenting opinions are being censored.  Churches and businesses were closed.  Pastors were arrested.  And the opponents of these oppressive policies have been demonized as "racists."

Yesterday, Canadian officials suggested that the Canadian military might be deployed to deal with truckers who have been peacefully protesting against vaccine mandates. 

Today, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau seemed to walk that back a bit, saying he would be "very, very cautious" about deploying troops and it's "not in the cards right now." 

But Trudeau also noted that there has been no such request yet.  In other words, if local officials ask for extra firepower, he might authorize it.

I have often written that the Chinese virus not only caused illness and death, it also infected many bureaucrats with an authoritarian impulse causing tremendous social division.  Sadly, the COVID crisis has unmasked the authoritarianism of the Big Government left and exposed a liberty crisis in the free world. 

That's why 2020 was not a normal election, and no election going forward will be a normal election.  The elections this year, two years from now and for some time in the foreseeable future will determine whether we remain free or morph into a globalist society dominated by elites and technocrats who mean to control us.