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(AP Photo\/Steve Helber)<\/p><\/div>\n
America is in the midst of one of the great moral panics in our nation\u2019s history. If we don\u2019t stand up for our nation\u2019s core values, the situation could get even worse \u2013 and soon. If you\u2019ve spent any time on social media in the last three weeks, you\u2019ve probably noticed the organized campaigns to get college and even\u00a0high school<\/a>\u00a0students expelled or denied admission based on their political views. You\u2019ve also seen gleeful mobs celebrating as Americans lose their jobs for running afoul of someone\u2019s momentary political obsessions.<\/p>\n In every sector of American society, people are having their careers destroyed to the pitiless baying of the \u201cwoke\u201d masses. It\u2019s happening in business. CrossFit CEO Greg Glassman spent 20 years building the fitness brand into a multi-billion dollar company, only to be\u00a0thrown<\/a> out of the empire he built for declining to go along with the \u201cracism is a public health crisis\u201d\u00a0\u00a0dogma.<\/p>\n It\u2019s happening in journalism. New York Times editor James Bennet, a liberal, was\u00a0fired<\/a>\u00a0for publishing an op-ed by a sitting Republican senator advocating for a military response to nationwide rioting — a position the majority of Americans\u00a0agreed<\/a>\u00a0with. The same fate befell Philadelphia Inquirer editor Stan Wischowski, who was terminated for approving an article that condemned looting and arson.<\/p>\n It\u2019s happening in\u00a0entertainment<\/a>, in\u00a0academia<\/a>, and pretty much anywhere someone can be found who is not sufficiently supportive of the Black Lives Matter movement.<\/p>\n It\u2019s even happening to people who didn\u2019t do anything at all. An L.A. Galaxy soccer player was forced to resign because\u00a0his wife<\/em>\u00a0tweeted that rioters should be shot. A lawyer in San Francisco was fired because\u00a0his wife<\/em>\u00a0was rude to a man she\u00a0thought<\/a>\u00a0was spray-painting BLM propaganda on a building that wasn\u2019t his (it was). On Thursday, this Stasi-esque trend reached another level when a company called Equity Prime Mortgage\u00a0fired<\/a>\u00a0the\u00a0stepmother\u00a0<\/em>of the officer charged in the controversial shooting of drunk driver Rashad Brooks after he fought with and fired a taser at police. The stepmother was apparently fired for no reason other than family loyalty.<\/p>\n On Monday, the panic reached what one can only hope will be its peak when a San Diego Gas and Electric employee\u00a0lost<\/a>\u00a0his job for \u201cmaking a white supremacist hand gesture.\u201d We\u2019ve long since debunked the notion that the OK sign is somehow racist — that was just a fiction perpetrated by internet trolls — but in this case, this man lost his livelihood despite the fact\u00a0he wasn\u2019t even making an OK sign<\/em>. He was apparently cracking his knuckles as he drove.<\/p>\n What America is going through right now is not merely another, more intense round of \u201ccancel culture.\u201d We\u2019re now in the midst of a full-force, totalitarian remolding of our society, one that seeks to place the petty resentments of an outraged minority of leftist activists above everything else in American life. Because of their willingness to riot, loot, and assault anyone they perceive to be insufficiently sympathetic to their cause, leftists are able to bully ordinary people into submission. As a result, television shows such as \u201cCops<\/a>\u201d\u00a0and \u201cLive PD<\/a>,\u201d classic films such as \u201cGone With the Wind,\u201d and iconic brands such as\u00a0Aunt Jemima<\/a>,\u00a0Mrs. Buttersworth<\/a>, and\u00a0Uncle Ben\u2019s<\/a>\u00a0rice are consigned to the \u201cdustbin of history.\u201d<\/p>\n I used to speak frequently to nervous conservatives who were convinced that if we only allowed the left to tear down Confederate war memorials, they would be satisfied. How quickly events have disproved that wishful thinking. From Christopher\u00a0Columbus<\/a>, George\u00a0Washington<\/a>, Thomas\u00a0Jefferson<\/a>, and the western\u00a0pioneers<\/a>, activists are now coming after cartoon\u00a0sports mascots<\/a>\u00a0and college\u00a0fight songs<\/a>.\u00a0Everything —\u00a0<\/em>from the core of our country\u2019s history to the values and norms undergirding American culture — must be uprooted to appease the mob.<\/p>\n They are tearing down dozens of statues and facing no consequences whatsoever for vandalizing our public spaces — including memorials to our nation\u2019s greatest heroes. When private citizens try to do the job the government won\u2019t and protect our culture, our history, and our public property from destruction, local officials step in and\u00a0remove<\/a>\u00a0the statues on behalf of the vandals, lest they injure themselves while imitating Iraqis celebrating the fall of Saddam Hussein.<\/p>\n These people are not seeking change at the margins. They are demanding a total cultural revolution, and cowardly public officials are giving it to them. If you look at this national outpouring of hatred and recrimination with horror verging on despair, I assure you that you are not alone. Tens of millions of Americans feel exactly the same way.<\/p>\n President Trump is doing exactly what an American president should do in a crisis like this. He is working to maintain law and order and prevent cowed local officials from allowing political violence to flare again. He issued an executive order to add to his legacy of reform and address legitimate concerns about law enforcement in this country. He also issued a separate executive order targeting the systemic bias in Silicon Valley\u2019s censorship offices, which has allowed our social media platforms to become echo chambers for left-wing extremism and \u201ccancel culture.\u201d<\/p>\n The only thing that could make the situation worse at this moment would be handing the White House to a doddering and unprincipled establishment politician beholden to the \u201ccancel culture\u201d mob. Presumptive Democratic nominee Joe Biden would immediately delegate\u00a0de facto<\/em>\u00a0control over the vast justice, civil rights, and regulatory apparatus of the federal government to the loudest voices in his coalition: the woke activist class.<\/p>\n At this moment, there is a veritable army of lawyers and bureaucrats who have spent the last three and a half years subsisting on resentment and salivating at the prospect of regaining power. Things are bad enough now, but conditions will become much worse if the \u201ccancel culture\u201d born on social media is augmented with the force of law and given the full attention of Biden appointees imbued with the sweeping powers of the federal bureaucracy.<\/p>\n Dark forces have been unleashed in this country. Even now, we are only seeing the tip of the iceberg. If we don\u2019t want to find out how much damage it can inflict on the ship of state, we must prevent those forces from taking control of the federal government.<\/p>\n Harlan Hill is a political advisor, media commentator, advisory board member of Donald J. Trump for President, Inc., and the author of\u00a0<\/em>\u00a0\u201cThey\u2019re Not Listening: How the Elites Created the National Populist Revolution.\u201d<\/p>\n