The Constitution is not an instrument for the government to restrain the people, it is an instrument for the people to restrain the government – lest it come to dominate our lives and interests.

-Patrick Henry

As the saying goes, the squeaky wheel gets the grease. Now, however, after years of radical LGBT activist domination over the nation’s dialogue surrounding civil rights, liberty-loving gay Americans are pushing back.

All wheels have begun to squeak.

Masterpiece Cakeshop V. Colorado Civil Rights Commission

On Monday, the Supreme Court of the United States ruled (7-2) in favor of Jack Phillips, a devout Christian and confectionary artist. In 2012, after declining to lend his artistry skills toward the custom adornment of a cake intended for the celebration of a same-sex wedding, Phillips was sued for discrimination and was later found guilty by the Colorado Civil Rights Commission.

Although the Commission had deemed Phillips’s art – confectionary art is a subset of sugar art – as expression under the First Amendment, his religious views were publicly attacked by commissioners. It was this blatant governmental bias which persuaded the Supreme Court to reverse all previous rulings against Mr. Phillips.

Despite of the Supreme Court ruling’s narrow scope, by mid-day on Monday, freedom-loving gay Americans had begun to speak out in support of Jack Phillips’s Freedom of Religion and Freedom of Speech, and celebrate the Supreme Court ruling in Mr. Phillips’s favor.

Those who expect to reap the blessings of freedom must… undergo the fatigue of supporting it.

-Thomas Paine

Pushing Back: Live on the Radio

Speaking with Rush Limbaugh on Monday, a Seattle woman who identified herself, saying, “I’m gay, I’m Hispanic, I’m female, I’m middle-aged, and I’m conservative,” stated:

I wanted to comment on the cake thing, on the Supreme Court judgment ruling on the cake matter. I wanted to say that I am so pleased to hear that, because I just don’t understand how people in this country can keep fighting against having their negative rights, against having what makes this country great, and against that which are the people that came to this country and come to this country, come here for. I just don’t get it… we are the country on this planet that stands for everyone to come and have liberty.

…[P]eople want to have freedom. But what they don’t understand is that freedom never needs to be defended. It’s liberty that needs to be defended. God gives us our freedom. God gives us the right to be free. We have to defend our liberty.

Another Limbaugh caller who identified himself as a wedded gay man, expressed disdain for the radical LGBT activists, describing them as “militant,” asserting:

…[I]t does not make our situation any easier when these militants are on the news because they do not represent me.

His {the husband’s] family didn’t show up at our wedding because they believe a marriage is between one man and one woman. And I don’t want to brand them a bigot or a homophobe for the rest of their lives when I could have an opportunity to have a relationship with them. I’d rather understand where they’re coming from and try to build off of what we have in common than brand them over a decision like a cake and then not have a relationship with the man I love’s family.

The caller continued his frank criticism, stating:

I think these militants make it worse, not better, and they don’t have me — in mind when they’re out there doing it… I just think they’re really loud and obnoxious, and so they get on the news.

They went on TV, and they said what their case was. They said it was never about the cake; it was about making them do what they wanted them to do. 

And I would rather go get a cake from somewhere else and not be on the news and have a chance at understanding where other people are coming from than force my will on them any more than I want them to force their will on me. I know a lot of people don’t accept gay marriage. However, it’s a lifestyle choice I made. They choose not to bake me a cake. I’ll get one somewhere else.

My sexuality makes up so small of who I am as a person; it really shouldn’t matter.

Pushing Back: Speaking Out on Twitter

Other non-totalitarian, liberty-loving gay Americans chose to push back by making their voices heard via social media.

I don't expect you to tell me that you're okay with my lifestyle and you should expect me not to shove it in your face. There's SO much more to talk about and unite behind that doesn't involve sex. Why is that so hard for people?

— RedPillGinger (@RedPillGinger) June 4, 2018

I don't expect you to tell me that you're okay with my lifestyle and you should expect me not to shove it in your face. There's SO much more to talk about and unite behind that doesn't involve sex. Why is that so hard for people?

— RedPillGinger (@RedPillGinger) June 4, 2018

What the straight majority need to understand….is what USED to be the G.A.Y. (Good As You) movement for equality…..got hijacked by the Far Left PoliticalLGBT+++ decades ago, & they've wrecked it from the inside…they DON'T represent most ordinary gays anymore ☹

— Kate Robinson 🐸 (@katerobinson925) June 5, 2018

To me this wasn't about winning over the Left.

The Left equally benefits from the precedent set by this ruling.

I care about the state forcing *anyone* to violate their moral beliefs through participation in events or creating an artistic piece for something they oppose.

— Chad Felix Greene (@chadfelixg) June 4, 2018

To LGBT this was an issue of validation. They hated the notion that despite gaining recognized marriage, social representation and almost universal acceptance, they could experience rejection for who they are.

This manifested in an obsession in hunting down all dissenters.

— Chad Felix Greene (@chadfelixg) June 4, 2018

Pushing Back: The New Squeaky Wheels

The phenomenon of gay Americans, fellow freedom-fighters, pushing back against the radical LGBT lobby isn’t unique to the Masterpiece Cakeshop court case. Since 2013, Chad Felix Greene- a wedded gay man – has “been writing in favor of religious freedom for those asked to participate in gay weddings.”

After Monday’s Supreme Court ruling, Mr. Greene stated:

LGBT’s hysterical denunciations and hair-on-fire rhetoric has not changed. Fortunately the argument has. We must continue fighting the rhetoric.

This case is not over.

Back in December of 2017, a gay duo – T.J. and Matt – made headlines for their open support of Jack Phillips and all who wish to exercise religious liberty and freedom of speech.  In a video for the Alliance Defending Freedom, the pair, standing outside the front entrance of the Masterpiece Cakeshop, explained:

We’re here to buy stuff from him and support him, because we don’t think any artist should be forced to create for something that violates their beliefs.

On Monday, echoing the same sentiment, Mr. Greene explained to his followers on Twitter:

The LGBT movement needs to understand that tolerance goes both ways. They have been behaving as though they are entitled to special treatment from everyone under the guise of ‘equality.’

We have equality. But we don’t have the right to demand others violate their beliefs for us.

The ordaining of laws in favor of one part of the nation to the prejudice and oppression of another, is certainly the most erroneous and mistaken policy. An equal dispensation of protection, rights, privileges, and advantages is what every part is entitled to and ought to enjoy.

-Benjamin Franklin

Reason to Hope

The trappings of authoritarian identify politics are being rejected and the walls are beginning to crumble. Liberty-loving Americans representing a plurality of circumstance and lifestyle, often hidden from the limelight of the media, are joining together in good will.

As a Christian and an artist, I count the mounting acts of ideological divergence – examples of bravery – from those in the gay community, as true blessings!

Alas! The Lord works in mysterious ways.

Early last month, I wrote an article warning my readers that, based on the current political climate, we could be on the verge of witnessing the rise of the United Socialist States of America. In that article, I documented how the Democrat party’s embrace of Marxist ideology was fueling the rise of Democratic Socialism, particularly where capitalism and the free market are concerned.

I also shared how a majority of millennials favored the idea of completely rejecting capitalism and replacing it with the economic policies of murderous communist dictators like Karl Marx, Joseph Stalin, and Chairman Mao. No surprise, really, in light of the fact that today’s public schools have become indoctrination centers where the Bible and the Constitution have been banned only to be replaced by the politically correct agenda of social justice warriors passing as teachers.

Obviously, those who bear the moniker of Democratic-Socialist are easy to target as being the greatest threat to liberty when it comes to advancing socialist policies. But as I stated in the USSA article, the GOP has abandoned the Constitution and conservatism, so they can’t be counted on to protect America either.

Unfortunately, the advance of socialism has reached its way into the faux conservative remnant of the GOP and is now being promoted as a conservative value.

In an article from NewsMax.com, Lee Mercer, the president of Healthcare for All Oregon-Action, is making an appeal to Donald Trump to make the “conservative case for single payer healthcare.” While Mercer is more on the Democratic-Socialist side of the aisle, he quotes “conservatives” from Canada and the US to Trump to make his case.

Using the recently released healthcare documentary “Fix it: Healthcare at the Tipping Point” as a reference, Mercer quotes Dann Konkin, President of AMPCO Manufacturers in British Columbia, who gave his views on business and healthcare.

“I am a member of the Conservative Party of Canada. We stand for removing waste, being more efficient and finding ways to grow our own businesses and one of the ways we can grow our business is to reduce cost. That is why we embrace the Canadian healthcare system. What I don’t understand is why my fellow conservatives in the United States tend to fight this.”

And from the US, Mercer quotes former GOP Rep. David Steil (PA):

“Business when they look at the single payer model, will come quickly to the conclusion that it is the least expensive and most supportive of a free market and will have the most direct effect on their cost of operations. As a business owner and as a former Republican legislator I have said conservatives should be supportive of single payer because it costs less.”

So, according to these so-called conservatives, socialized medicine is a free-market solution to the healthcare crisis . . . and it’s conservative.

Democratic Socialism has brought America to the brink of becoming the United Socialist States of America, but it looks like Conservative Socialism will finish the job.

Originally posted on The Strident Conservative.

David Leach is the owner of The Strident Conservative. His daily radio commentary is distributed by the Salem Radio Network and is heard on stations across America.

Follow the Strident Conservative on Twitter and Facebook.  Subscribe to receive podcasts of radio commentaries: iTunes | Stitcher | Tune In | RSS

Earlier this month, I wrote a piece about how the Democrats have adopted the Marxist ideals of Democratic-Socialism, officially adding them to the party’s agenda heading into the 2018 and 2020 elections in their effort to move the country closer to becoming a post-Constitutional America.

Vital to their agenda is a belief in big government, the surrender of liberty and self-determination, and the destruction of free-market capitalism—an agenda that is growing in acceptance with the next generation of voters.

The list of socialist “solutions” to America’s “problems” is long . . . and getting longer. From government-run health care to newer ideas like government-funded universal basic income and government-guaranteed jobs for life, nothing is off-limits when it comes to creating a world where government provides everything it believes we need.

This brings us to the latest example of Democratic-Socialism from the laboratory of socialist government—California.

In the city of Stockton, CA, where Mayor Michael Tubbs is already preparing to launch a living wage program—at $500/month, it’s more like a government-provided allowance for recipients to spend however they wish—comes word from the 27-year-old Stanford graduate of a solution to the growing gun violence and gang problems in his city.

Tougher prison sentencing? Get serious. This is a California socialist we’re talking about.

Mayor Tubbs wants to solve the gun and gang problems the same way Democratic-Socialists always do—with a government check. The city of Stockton is considering issuing a check of up to $1,000/month to residents identified as “most likely to shoot somebody” under a program called “Advance Peace.”

Tubbs, a Stockton native and Stanford graduate who is all of 27 years old, wants to give at least $500 a month to a select group of residents. They’ll be able to spend it as they wish, for 18 months, in a pilot program to test the impact of what’s called guaranteed basic income.

If the very sound of that knocked you half off your chair, this next initiative might finish the job.

Stockton is about to award stipends of up to $1,000 a month to residents deemed most likely to shoot somebody. This program is called Advance Peace, and it’s modeled after a crime reduction program in the Bay Area city of Richmond.

What Tubbs is proposing is essentially paying criminals not to commit a crime, at least not a crime using a gun. Which begs the question, why stop there? If you actually believe you can pay a gang-banger not to kill, why not pay them not to rob or rape? Ridiculous, right?

In the interest of better marketing, I have a suggestion for a new name to give his program. I realize that this is California, but “Advance Peace” sounds a bit too 1960’s for me.

How about Cash for Criminals? Or Cash for Killers? I’ll let the mayor decide.

Originally posted on The Strident Conservative.

David Leach is the owner of The Strident Conservative. His daily radio commentary is distributed by the Salem Radio Network and is heard on stations across America.

Follow the Strident Conservative on Twitter and Facebook.  Subscribe to receive podcasts of radio commentaries: iTunes | Stitcher | Tune In | RSS