Hard to feel sorry for Blagojevich, but it’s not about him
It’s hard to feel sorry for former Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich. He was so obnoxious and arrogant. But the decision on whether he should return to public office doesn’t belong with Big Brother and the politicians. It belongs to voters. Censorship is wrong.
By Ray Hanania
Rod Blagojevich was always his own worst enemy.
An arrogant and selfish politician who cared more for himself than he did the people of Illinois, Blagojevich was an easy target for his many political enemies.
His enemies, Republicans and Democrats, not only ousted him from office but they inflicted punishment on him that was tougher than what Cook County State’s attorney Kim Foxx dishes out for real criminals who actually threaten people.
So, it is hard to feel sorry for him as he files a lawsuit to remove a ban that prevents him from running for public office again.
I am no fan of Rod Blagojevich. But I am a big believer that the public is not as stupid as some politicians, and powerful social media nerds, think we are.
Every day, we are being told what we can hear and what we can’t hear. What we can think and what we can’t think. There is this new kind of partisan censorship that targets people based not on what you say, but rather on who you are and what you believe. Often times, conservatives are the biggest victims of this new form of censorship and their views are removed and they are blocked from “social media.”
Suddenly, Big Brother is some techie loner who lacks social skills and knows little about the real life challenges facing everyday Americans. But they are nerds, or spoiled children of the wealthy, and they made billions because they know how to write computer code.
The privileged and wealthy few — the robber barons at Twitter, Facebook, and the struggling-to-survive, desperate mainstream news media — who know absolutely nothing about what it is really like to struggle and survive in America want to control America. They want to tell us what to think. When you challenge them, they bully you and use their platforms to demonize you. They prevent your voice from being heard.
That’s the real sickness that exists in America. Censorship. A cabal of evil media elites who do whatever they want to do for themselves, but do everything they can to prevent you from living your own life the way you want to live it.
You see, I believe in the intelligence of the American public. Knowing how to create a billion dollar tech company doesn’t make you smart. Chances are those billionaires broke more laws, and violated more ethical guidelines and morals than you could even imagine.
The real geniuses are those like you and me. We get up in the morning and we make one promise to ourselves. We want to do what’s right for our families, our friends and our community. We loathe criminals, especially the violent ones, and wish they would be held accountable. We watch “Forensic Files” on TV every night and cheer when the guilty get snagged and punished.
We, the average every day American, feel for the victims of crime and political unfairness, unlike the media privileged, many of whom squirmed their way into prosperity and fame and bully their critics and adversaries.
Most importantly, we want to see and hear everything for ourselves, so we can decide what really is right and what really is wrong. We don’t need some moron to tell us what is right and what is wrong. I don’t want to be told what to think. I want the freedom that God gave me, and that is allegedly protected in the U.S. Constitution, to think whatever and however I want.
Rod Blagojevich wants to run for public office again, and that’s something Big Brother doesn’t want. Why? It’s not about Blagojevich. It is about Big Brother’s power. It is about control. It is about Big Brother denying the public’s right to decide. They want the choice to be their choice, not yours. They want to control your thinking and your lives.
They think the public is stupid. But I don’t. I think the public and voters are smart enough to decide for themselves if Blagojevich should or shouldn’t get another chance to run for public office.
I am not advocating for Blagojevich or against him. Blagojevich may be a jerk. But that’s up to me to decide. It’s not up to the Big Brother manipulators, who censor social media and throttle your social media presence to stop your voice from being heard, and who want to tell you and me what to think.
Let Rod Blagojevich put his name on a ballot and let the voters decide to accept or reject him. The power to decide belongs with the voters, not with the authoritarian Big Brother manipulators.
(Ray Hanania is an award winning former Chicago City Hall reporter and political columnist. This column was originally published in the Southwest News Newspaper Group in the Des Plaines Valley News, Southwest News-Herald, The Regional News, The Reporter Newspapers. For more information on Ray Hanania visit www.Hanania.com or email him at rghanania@gmail.com.)
Hanania also writes about Middle East issues for the Arab News, and The Arab Daily News criticizing government policies in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Hanania was named "Best Ethnic American Columnist" by the New America Media in November 2007, and is the 2009 recipient of the SPJ National Sigma Delta Chi Award for column writing.
Email Ray Hanania at rghanania@gmail.com.
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