There’s an longstanding saying about letting bygones be bygones, but telling that to the American Left — given our current political climate — seems about as useful as talking to Thomas Jefferson’s memorial statue.
Indeed, we’ve reached a level of vindictiveness in American politics that would make the Hatfield and McCoy feud look like a playground brawl.
Since the moment Joe Biden was declared the winner of the presidential election in early November, there have been consistent calls for the blacklisting of anyone even remotely associated with the name, "Donald Trump."
It’s somewhat ironic, but not surprising.
While Biden beats his hollow unity drum, there are individuals and organizations actively trying to interfere with former Trump officials and their future career aspirations and endeavors.
It’s highly disturbing to see Americans behaving like this, but then again these are some of the same folks who run interference for Fidel Castro’s communist Cuba and lay down with the communist thugs in China, so who am I to judge?
First, we had the illustrious Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., (AOC) idiotically calling for "archiving these Trump sycophants for when they try to downplay or deny their complicity."
This sounds suspiciously like a McCarthy-era blacklist.
Then there was the so-called "Trump Accountability Project," that never got off the ground.
More recently, the fake conservatives who run The Lincoln Project announced they were creating a database "of Trump officials & staff that will detail their roles in the Trump administration."
And just this week, we learned that another group calling itself the "Campaign Against Corporate Complicity" is pressuring corporate America to refrain from hiring ex-Trump officials.
John Weaver from The Lincoln Project has his own questionable hiring issues.
What do all these mindless crusades have in common?
They are, in essence, devoting time and resources to hounding and harassing Americans who worked for the Trump administration — for the rest of their lives.
These people want to do their utmost to make finding a job difficult for these officials.
It’s vindictive, petty and most significantly, it's illegal.
I’m not a lawyer, but there’s this little thing called tortious interference that even a layman like me knows about. For the uninitiated, it just means if you do something that ruins a job opportunity or causes another person to get fired from a current job, you can be sued.
And, if you do something that results in the loss of a contract or business for an individual, there’s a good chance you can face actions alleging tortious interference.
All that considered, I’m at a loss to explain why these liberals are so bent on destroying people who were just serving their country: Because that’s what could happen if this cancel culture fever is allowed to run unchecked.
Innocent people who, four years ago, imagined working in a presidential administration as a chance of a lifetime, suddenly are in the proverbial crosshairs of the Left.
It won’t just be the major players mind you.
The pervasive, hateful news articles are going to highlight others as well.
Those who aren’t mentioned, the nameless staffers who never go on TV or speak to the press will be punished. The rank and file of the administration will feel the wrath of the nogoodniks like AOC, Rick Wilson and their ilk simply because "Trump administration" makes up a portion of their resumes.
Just as the Left isn’t thinking about these long-term consequences, neither are they considering the very serious possibility that their quest for vengeance could result in legal action from the people they’re hounding.
It goes without saying that tortious interference is a serious allegation.
A massive lawsuit or series of suits would eat up time and money for any one of these groups, never mind the negative press that kind of attention would bring (trust me on that one, I also do public relations for a living).
It’s mind boggling that AOC and The Lincoln Project would run that kind of risk.
Either they haven’t any inkling about legal precedence, or they are so callous in their odium that they just don’t care.
In America, we don’t create lists of people we don’t like.
We don’t sink to the level of the old Soviet Union, Communist East Germany, or North Korea. We don’t like sore losers, but we absolutely detest sore winners. If the Left really wants to use Joe Biden’s victory to run former Trump staffers down to the ends of the earth and ensure they never work again, they’re welcome to try.
However, they should understand actions have consequences.
Right now, they’re sowing the seeds of a dangerous precedent.
But just as dangerous is the legal trouble they could find themselves in if they don’t let go of the simmering abhorrence that is driving them to recklessness.
Craig Shirley is a Ronald Reagan biographer and presidential historian. His books include ''Reagan’s Revolution, The Untold Story of the Campaign That Started it All,'' ''Rendezvous with Destiny, Ronald Reagan and the Campaign That Changed America,'' "Reagan Rising: The Decisive Years," and ''Last Act: The Final Years and Emerging Legacy of Ronald Reagan." He is also the author of The New York Times bestseller, ''December 1941,'' and his new 2019 book, ''Mary Ball Washington,'' a definitive biography of George Washington’s mother. Shirley lectures frequently at the Reagan Library and the Reagan Ranch. He has been named the First Reagan Scholar at Eureka College, Ronald Reagan’s alma mater, and will teach a class this fall at the University of Virginia on Reagan. He appears regularly on Newsmax TV, Fox News, MSNBC, and CNN. Read Craig Shirley's Reports — More Here.
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