Christmas, now “Government Approved”

Published 12-17-2020

One of the things to filter through my self-mandated social media detox since Thanksgiving was President Trump naming Christmas Eve a federal holiday.

And as I went about my business, and giving it more than a normal passing thought and usual laughter of what passes for breaking news during the Trump years, I saw it as quite fitting of 2020, and the twists and turns this year has brought us all.

Every time I turn around I see signs of the government’s “approval” encroaching. Even here in red-state Tennessee.

Lockdowns, mask mandates, public health orders and ensuing enforcement to socially distanced Christmas concerts (this wasn’t necessarily a bad development) all came with government approval.

So did the summer protests, looting and destruction... to not put too fine a point on it.

I joke about the Christas concert, but I was quite thankful to watch Sam and Vincie - along with the rest of the middle school band - perform Christmas music, mandatory masks and taped off bleachers were a small price to pay for the ability to have some normalcy and celebration of hard work.

And while on the surface the federally recognized holiday seems like a great win, the whole point of the First Amendment was keeping the government away from what religion celebrates.

Maybe I’m just an odd person who doesn’t need a rubber stamp of authority or approval for which holy days I recognize.

And, if I’ve even remotely read the Bible correctly, God’s interest about what’s in an Executive Order is down order from what’s in people’s hearts.

If this order is more about the “protection” of a traditional Christian holiday against the secular onslaught of the progressive left, well an Executive Order will be but a speed bump against the weight of the bureaucracy and academia.

Those looking for the weight of the government’s approval will eventually be crushed by that same weight when that favor is removed.

I’m less disheartened by the results of a single election than I am at how many in our society are willing to accept the “government approved” narrative, with zero curiosity or memory of the last narrative, as though it was the ultimate authority. Much of the time completely contradicting the last very serious proclamation.

The government, and those who populate it, will do what it does best. Command and control.

And it continues until it meets the final bulwark.

A nation’s consent.

It’s a curious question, that consent. And at what level that consent is practiced or withdrawn in our every day lives.

Is it a public stance of resistance? Hashtag campaigns on social media, opinion columns and letters to the editor in our papers of record or even arguing with people online?

Is it lawfare? Flooding the civil court landscape with booby traps and defense of policy application. Create controversy, of the secret variety while using the secrecy to advance hearings meant to hamstring an administration?

Is it injecting party politics into an ever growing bureaucracy? Burrowing in appointed political actors, like DOJ attorney Kevin Clinesmith, lying in wait?

All seem to be actions undertaken with government approval.

The professional class has their tools of consent and resistance.

What tools are there for the working and middle class?

What answers are there for those who see their lives falling down around them, their livelihoods shuttered by the professional classes? Who watch aid flow away, lost to political proximity and bureaucratic ineptitude?

Can they withdraw consent?

Send in a protest vote instead of their property taxes? Income taxes?

Maybe even be so daring as to question or contest election results?

Obviously not to the same levels of standing and approval from Washington D.C. the last four years received.

Hashtag “RESIST” probably wouldn’t fly if the F.B.I. came to question you either. At least on the tax parts.

Twitter lockdowns and absurd “fact check” banners usually don’t warrant a visit from the feds, at least not yet.

So as we get ready to celebrate our newest federally approved holiday, while governors spread new quarantine orders and travel advisories, take heart.

Joseph and Mary may have travelled to Bethlehem as part of their duty as citizens, what we celebrate next week had little to do with the Governor’s consent.

And she gave birth to a higher command than even Governor Newsom can aspire.