In my newest book, “Scarlet Letters: The Ever-Increasing Intolerance of the Cult of Liberalism,” I document the left’s totalitarian urge to punish those individuals who challenge its ever-shifting ersatz morality.
The accusers insist that resistance is born out of hatred – of blacks, of gays, of immigrants, of Muslims, of women, of poor people, even, yes, of Mother Earth. And woe to that hater who publicly defies the orthodoxy du jour.
Fortunately, as the intolerance has increased so has the resistance. This past year any number of culture warriors, some heretofore unknown, have taken their assigned Scarlet Letter and shoved it up the left’s whatever.
It is time to honor the most resolute among them. If I overlook someone worthy – and I am sure I will – please acknowledge him or her in the comment section below.
Honorable Mention: Dr. Ben Carson, actor (and tweeter) James Woods, Milwaukee County Sheriff David Clarke, former ESPN announcer Curt Schilling, actress Stacey Dash, gay-marriage resister Kim Davis, anti-Castro commentator Humberto Fontova, underground reporter James O’Keefe, anti-Islam cartoonist Bosch Fawstin, pro-life activist Lila Rose, Hillary scourge Kathleen Willey, “Adios America” author Ann Coulter, “Antidote” author Jesse Lee Peterson, commentator Alan West, Duck Dynasty’s Phil Robertson, anti-feminist feminist Camille Paglia, South Park’s Trey Parker and Matt Stone, pro-gun rocker Ted Nugent, Breitbart’s Ben Shapiro and Milo Yiannopoulos, tweeter extraordinaire Dave Burge, American Thinker’s Thomas Lifson and perennials Mark Levin, Joseph Farah and Rush Limbaugh.
10. Mitch Daniels
Unique among college presidents, the former Indiana governor made sure his university (and my alma mater), Purdue, stood “steadfast in preserving academic freedom and individual liberty.” Said Daniels with in-your-face insouciance, “What a proud contrast to the environments that appear to prevail at places like Missouri and Yale.”
9. Diana West
In her dazzling book “American Betrayal,” West made a powerful case that the FDR White House, led by fifth columnist Harry Hopkins, adopted a Soviet-first posture throughout World War II. Given that the left could care less about history, West spent much of the last year defending her thesis against antagonists on the respectable right.
8. Michael Walsh
Walsh’s 2015 opus, “The Devil’s Pleasure Palace,” is arguably the most enlightening – and entertaining – book yet written on the origins of the culture war. It deserves a wider readership.
7. Aaron and Melissa Klein
The former proprietors of Sweet Cakes by Melissa, the Kleins of Oregon just paid a $135,000 fine for refusing to make a gay wedding cake. Their humility and resolve in the face of leftist bullying have shown those who care to see just how fascistic our progressive friends can be.
6. Colin Flaherty
Flaherty wades fearlessly into waters where few Caucasians dare follow – the absurdly taboo subject of black on white crime – and laughs in the face of the peril. Better yet, he somehow makes us, however guiltily, laugh as well.
5. Sundance
Sundance and the blogging collective at the Conservative Treehouse are, hands down, America’s best crime reporters. They deconstruct criminal cases with all the tools the social media make available and without the major media’s crippling bias. They likely saved George Zimmerman and Darren Wilson from prison, and may do the same for the Baltimore Six.
4. Pamela Geller
With her work exposing the Muslim threat to Western civilization, Geller risks not just getting fired or losing a TV gig. She risks her life. If proof were needed, armed terrorists attacked her “Draw the Prophet” contest this spring. Given that the event was held in Texas, they did not fare too well.
3. Mark Steyn
With exceptional wit and impressive poise, Steyn has been fighting successfully – both in prose and in court – on two major fronts: Islamic terror and climate change. It is hard to say which opponent is scarier. “Even when you have no idea you’re committing a hate crime, chances are you still are,” said Steyn memorably after Canadian Islamophiles dragged him before that nation’s official inquisitors for daring to tell the truth.
2. Donald Trump
A week before Trump declared his candidacy – and before I even knew he was running – I wrote on these pages, “The Republican nominee for president will be that candidate who best learns that there is no future in apologizing.” I may prove to be right.
Although I lean toward Ted Cruz, Trump deserves a ton of credit for unnerving our cultural mandarins, left and right, on any number of cultural fronts. The multi-threat Trump has already been accused of sexism, racism, classism, xenophobia, Islamophobia and the all-purpose fascism, and this a month before the first primary. If Mitt Romney had half of Trump’s moxie, he would be president today.
1. David Daleiden
The most valuable cultural warrior of 2015 is a guy whose name not one American in 50 would recognize but whose work is known by almost all.
Daleiden is the pro-life activist whose undercover video campaign proved to anyone who cared to know that Planned Parenthood dismembers perfectly healthy unborn babies and traffics in their body parts. In the process, he turned the abortion issue from a strategic Democratic advantage to a major liability.
And Daleiden is just 26. America may have a future yet.
Media wishing to interview Jack Cashill, please contact [email protected].
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