Douglas Robinson: The selective mutiny — When 'resistance' is just partisanship

To The Daily Sun,

The recent spectacle of six Democratic lawmakers — including Sens. Mark Kelly and Elissa Slotkin — releasing a video urging the military to defy "illegal orders" from President Donald Trump would be noble if it weren't so suffocated by hypocrisy. These self-appointed guardians of the Constitution have suddenly found their voices after four years of calculated silence.

Where was this concern for "illegal orders" when the Biden administration coerced Facebook and Twitter to censor American speech, bypassing the First Amendment by proxy? There was no call to "resist" then — only applause for "combatting misinformation."

Where was the outrage when Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz deployed the National Guard to enforce COVID lockdowns, leading to troops firing rubber bullets at citizens standing peacefully on their own front porches? Did Reps. Jason Crow or Chris Deluzio call for those troops to stand down? No. They accepted it as necessary for "public safety."

And as federal agencies like the ATF overstepped their bounds, compiling de facto registries of gun owners from retailers like Bass Pro Shops, these legislators didn't view it as government overreach; they viewed it as policy success.

The message is clear: When their party expands state power, crushes civil liberties, or violates privacy, it is "governance." But when a Republican takes office, the enforcement of law is suddenly framed as tyranny. This isn't a principled stand for the Constitution; it is a soft coup disguised as patriotism. They don't hate authoritarianism; they just hate not being the ones holding the leash.

Douglas Robinson

Laconia