The Republican Perversion of "Freedom"

One of the dictionary definitions of "freedom" is the power or right to act, speak, or think as one wants without hindrance or restraint.  Historically, especially in the political realm, freedom also involved some level of responsibility and social obligation, especially in the Republican Party of old.  Those days, sadly, are gone and now in today's GOP and among the deplorables, white supremacists and Christofascists who comprise the party base, "freedom" has been perverted to mean the right to harm and arrogantly endanger others, to lie to the detriment of others and to disseminate harmful falsehoods. Among these toxic individuals "freedom" and "religious freedom" mean things ranging from refusing to wear masks to prevent the spread of Covid-19, repeating known falsehoods to manipulate the ignorant and gullible, and to persecute and harm others. Decency, morality and any shred of a sense of social obligation to others have been jettisoned.  A column in the New York Times looks at this dangerous behavior.  Here are excerpts:

The Republican delirium drawing the most attention is the party’s indulgence of Marjorie Taylor Greene as she turns madness into martyrdom. Mustn’t alienate the QAnon caucus! Can’t win elections without ’em, and if Democratic leaders aren’t exactly cannibals and pedophiles, well, they want higher taxes on the affluent and more Americans enrolled in Obamacare, which is pretty much the same thing.

But there was a less noted sequence of events recently that, in its way, said just as much about how lost the party is. As is so often the case in Republican politics, it involved guns.

Many House Republicans have been freaking out, no exaggeration, over the installation of metal detectors along their paths to the House floor. Some of them have pointedly bypassed the devices. Others have railed against them with a righteous fury that would lead you to believe that instead of being checked for lethal weapons, they’re having their Newsmax printouts shredded or being outfitted with muzzles.

Apparently, if you can’t pack heat in proximity to Nancy Pelosi, you’re living in a totalitarian state. That’s not me being sarcastic. That’s Representative Debbie Lesko’s actual interpretation of the events. Lesko, an Arizona Republican, tweeted that the new security screening was proof that lawmakers “now live in Pelosi’s communist America.”

These lawmakers are ridiculous. But they’re ridiculous in ways that illuminate two themes that keep growing brighter — or maybe I should say darker — in Republican politics now. One is the reflexive attempt to divert attention from the florid craziness in their own ranks and own base by screaming “communist,” “socialist” or “radical left.” The other is to claim that they’re protecting freedom when they’re sanctioning nonsense.

I’m more interested in the latter, but first, a look at the former. How did Marco Rubio, emblematic of all the Republican senators who are determined to stay cozy with Trump’s supporters, respond to Trump’s richly earned second impeachment? By saying that the “radical left” was out of control. Mind you, the radical right, bloated by Trump’s fictions and most Republican senators’ silence, orchestrated the deadly events of Jan. 6, but confronting that head-on is of no political use to Rubio. So, instead: socialism! Cancel culture! The radical left!

Many Republicans immediately accepted Greene’s speech on the House floor on Thursday — during which she disavowed QAnon and the idea that school massacres and the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks were hoaxes — as a redemptive apology. It was nothing of the kind. She played the victim . . . .

It’s the way she waves the flag of freedom, saying that she fights for it while being denied it, that perhaps enrages me most, because it’s such a perversion of that ideal. Michael Tomasky wrote an excellent column in The Times late last year about the way in which Republicans, who have long branded themselves the party of “freedom,” now use the word and its variants in selective, wrongheaded and destructive ways that wind up endorsing recklessness more than liberty. He noted that John Stuart Mill, “one of the key authors of the Western concept of freedom,” rightly recognized that it must stop short of behavior that harms our fellow citizens.

Requiring that people wear face masks in crowded settings in the middle of a once-in-a-lifetime pandemic doesn’t repress individualism. It protects many individuals, so that they’re free to continue breathing and living. Sensible firearms restrictions aren’t an insult to freedom. They’re a bulwark against bloodshed and chaos, protecting the freedom of high school students and others to go about their days without the constant, gnawing fear of being shot.

Whenever you hear a Republican bloviating about freedom, the response is easy: assume they are lying and/or enabling dangerous elements of the GOP base.