Note from Norm: No More Rocking in the Free World

Neil Young is 76 years old. Howard Stern is 68 years old. They both believe the government is infallible.

My how the times have changed!

In the 1960s I was a young man, along with young men like Young and Stern. The Woodstock generation-the anti-war movement-don’t trust anyone over 30-and certainly don’t trust Big Brother-the Government. We didn’t trust it.  We felt it was lying to us about the Vietnam War and during Watergate it was a proven fact that the government was lying to us.  Time and time again.

I am 72 years old, and I still question the authority of government. While my hair is shorter, my politics more conservative, and my form of protest different, my distrust of a government that reaches beyond its Constitutional mandate is no less intense.

Today, both Young and Stern have become the arbiters of government authority as they demand that voices they disagree with on platforms like Spotify be silenced – and if not, that their work be removed.

Stern and Young, and other wealthy liberals have found protesting the concept of an omnipotent government inconvenient to their politics.

When Republicans and Conservatives hold the reins of government, the ’60 liberals decry their rule, attack their intentions, and can barely disguise their contempt for government and authority in general.

Yet when Democrats and Liberals hold those reins and impose the will of the government on the people of the United States, they bow to those in authority -and can barely disguise their contempt for those who dare challenge that authority.

I’ve been attacked over the years by liberals because I made the decision in 1996 to become a Republican after a lifetime of being a Democrat. I did so after watching the same Democratic Party, and many of those same liberals I marched alongside in the streets and protested with on college campuses against the autocracy of government now worship at the altar of big government.

Today, we see a resurgent federal government under the total control of Democrats in the White House, the U.S. Senate, and the U.S. House of Representatives. A federal government that believes it has vested in it unlimited power to place mandates over nearly every facet of our daily lives.  And what it can’t demand in policy or law, it harnesses the power of the bully pulpit to beat those that disagree with it into submission.

And they are harnessing not only their own power, through a Justice department and FBI that views parents who challenge critical race theory as domestic terrorists-but are aided in this effort to silence opposition by Big Tech and the mainstream media.

Along with the help of people like Neil Young and Howard Stern.

I’ve long advocated that Americans follow commonsense when it comes to protecting themselves and their families against the COVID-19 global pandemic. I supported Democrats, and Republicans, in the early phases of the pandemic who called upon citizens to make a national commitment to do what we could to prevent the spread of COVID-19.

I applauded President Trump’s “Warp Speed” initiative that brought about revolutionary vaccines that saved untold millions of lives and in my “Notes from Norm” have urged readers to take advantage of these lifesaving drugs. I’ve encouraged readers to make informed decisions and choices for themselves and their children, including social distancing and masks when appropriate.

But, as time went on and the pandemic continued it became clear that there were those inside the government, more often than not lead by Democrats and Liberals, who saw the situation as an opportunity to expand the power and influence of government.

Democrat and former Obama Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel once declared “You never want a serious crisis to go to waste. And what I mean by that is an opportunity to do things that you think you could not do before.”

And with COVID-19 Democrats took those words to heart and then some.

As dissent has grown to the measures that Democrats imposed, and continue to impose, on the people of the United States, the voices of dissent have grown, as well.

The nation’s One-Party Media (OPM) and the political left that partners with them are on the lookout for anybody that would challenge the rule or the message of the government.

And woe to those that don’t walk lockstep with the government and its messages and directives.

Opinions in America are as American as, well, as America. Yet, those opinions don’t get to see the light of day unless they have been vetted and approved by the political left in America.

These are dangerous days to be challenging the power and authority of government in America unless you happen to be demanding that our police departments be defunded, our criminal justice system stop prosecuting criminals, our schools teach Critical Race Theory, and that government shut down small businesses that refuse to search its customers for proof of COVID-19 vaccination.

And it saddens me to see what has become of so many of my musical icons-artists who gave voice to free speech, who challenged “the man”-and who now mark lockstep with those in authority.

So much for rockin’ in the free world!