The Effects of (Political) Climate Change

By Ed Hoffman

Last week, we saw just how quickly lawmakers will cower when faced with intimidation from the thugs on the left. I’m referring to the Indiana legislature, which was directed by Governor Mike Pence to revise its Religious Freedom Restoration Act after the law was widely – and dare I say, intentionally – mischaracterized by the media in order to generate hostility and outrage from simple-minded Americans.

As Governor Pence pointed out, the Indiana law was patterned after a federal law signed by President Clinton (that’s right: Clinton!) in 1993; in fact, it even has the same name. Michael Farris, who was on the federal committee that suggested the name of the bill 22 years ago, confirmed this week that the Indiana law was indeed modeled after the federal Religious Freedom and Restoration Act (RFRA) that he helped write. At the time, it was passed by a unanimous vote in the House and a 97-3 vote in the Senate before Clinton signed it into law.

Naturally, the left can’t accept this reality. So in recent days, elitist media outlets like The Atlantic, NPR and others have devoted entire columns to revealing the “major” differences between the two laws. But as far as I can tell, there is nothing major about those differences at all. The only thing that’s different, as far as I’m concerned, is the political climate of the 1990s vs. the one we live in today.

In 1993, the President didn’t receive death threats for passing a law that would allow business owners to run their enterprises in whatever way they saw fit. But today, a state governor does – or at the very least, he has to deal with everything from the Walmart CEO chiming in with his unsolicited opinion to loudmouths on Twitter calling for a “boycott” of Indiana. I’m not happy about Governor Pence’s response to the blowback; I think his demand for a revision reveals weakness, and that’s not something Americans need in their leaders (we have enough of it already).

But why should we be surprised? Conservatives are bullied by the mafia on the left all the time, and they’re getting worn down. As it was originally written, this law did nothing to promote discrimination; all it did was protect business owners with religious beliefs (and that includes Muslims, by the way – but the left doesn’t want you to realize that). That’s right: No practicing Muslim is going to bake a gay wedding cake, period – but you’re not supposed to know that, and if you do know it, you’re definitely not supposed to say it out loud. If you haven’t yet seen the viral video of conservative activist Steven Crowder posing as a gay groom at a Muslim bakery, I encourage you to check it out; it’s the reality check you won’t see on CNN or MSNBC.

I almost wonder if Indiana should have given this law a different name. Perhaps calling it the “freedom of expression” act or something that sounded vague, generic and open to broader interpretation would have pushed this legislation through under the radar. Because in this political climate, that’s the only way religious freedom is going to happen: quietly. The second the leftist mafia hears about a religious person exercising his constitutional rights, all religious freedom goes away.

Ed Hoffman is the host of the Main Event on AM590, which airs Saturday 9:30AM- 10:30AM and Sunday 4:00PM- 5:00PM. Follow him on Twitter @EdHoffman, and like him on Facebook by searching The Main Event 590.