by Lou Aguilar
An incoming tidal wave is often preceded by earthquakes on land, and last week several tremors signaled the Red Tsunami that will hit America in November. Liberal bulwarks toppled like dominoes across the cultural, legal, and political spectra. One shock felled a former shaky Republican president — from a dynasty of shaky Republican officeholders — to end his power line for the foreseeable future, probably forever. At the same time, a once moderately liberal tycoon became an even greater conservative hero. And, sensing the unsteadiness of the Left, two empires struck back, the first out of fear of the public, the other from fear of God.
Fresh from canceling Meghan Markle’s feminist girl propaganda, Pearl, Netflix just redoubled its progressive purge, going so far as to threaten the very woke employees it previously coddled. An updated Netflix culture memo contains a new section called “Artistic Expression,” which ascertains the company will not “censor specific artists or voices” even if employees find the content repugnant. “We support the artistic expression of the creators we choose to work with … and we let viewers decide what’s appropriate for them, versus having Netflix censor specific artists or voices.” That’s akin to a corporate Declaration of Independence.
Then comes the clincher. “We support the principle that Netflix offers a diversity of stories, even if we find some titles counter to our personal values … You may need to work on titles you perceive to be harmful. If you’d find it hard to support our content breadth, Netflix may not be the best place for you.” The media giant’s days of catering to snowflake staffers wailing about “anti-trans” fare — such as Dave Chappelle’s recent special — appear to be summarily over.
What Netflix giveth to left-wing youth indoctrination like Markle’s show, it also taketh away, astonishingly even braving accusations of racism. The company also just canceled Ibram X. Kendi’s ridiculously racist animated movie, Antiracist Baby — based on his nonsensical bestseller about the white supremacy of infants — and race-activist filmmaker Ava DuVernay’s cartoon series, Wings of Fire. In 2018, DuVernay turned Madeleine D’Engle’s timeless children’s classic, A Wrinkle in Time, into an intersectional cinematic bomb.
Not so long ago, Netflix would have taken virtue-signaling over profit and produced the works. “We couldn’t be more proud that Ava has chosen Netflix as the home for her first animated series,” said Melissa Cobb, the vice president of original animation, in April 2021. Since then, traditionalist parental blowback — such as last year’s CRT collapse in Virginia and Gov. Ron DeSantis’s slapdown of Disney in Florida — made Netflix suits think twice.
Meanwhile, a leader in a far older, more powerful entity, the Catholic Church, discovered the spiritual will to take on the depraved Democratic Speaker of the House. On Friday, Archbishop of San Francisco Salvatore Cordileone banned Nancy Pelosi from receiving Holy Communion until she repents of her pro-abortion policy. In a public notification almost as dramatic as Thomas Becket’s excommunication of Lord Gilbert, Cordileone wrote, “A Catholic legislator who supports procured abortion, after knowing the teaching of the Church, commits a manifestly grave sin. Therefore, universal Church law provides that such persons ‘are not to be admitted to Holy Communion.’”
Directly addressing Pelosi, Cordileone wrote, “I am hereby notifying you that you are not to present yourself for Holy Communion and, should you do so, you are not to be admitted to Holy Communion, until such time as you publicly repudiate your advocacy for the legitimacy of abortion and confess and receive absolution of this grave sin in the sacrament of Penance.” With those words, the archbishop destroyed Pelosi’s “practicing Catholic” façade and all her unctuous sanctimony. And Pelosi has no sanctuary. The bishop in Napa, where she has a vacation home, will back Cordileone’s decision. Bishop Robert Vasa of the Diocese of Santa Rosa said he instructed his priests to observe Pelosi’s Eucharist ban.
While Church leaders found their voice, former President George W. Bush lost his in a historic Freudian gaffe from which his already sullied reputation will never recover, and neither will his political lineage. Speaking at his presidential library Wednesday, Bush condemned “The decision of one man to launch a wholly unjustified and brutal invasion of Iraq — I mean of Ukraine.” In that moment, Bush fortified the worst accusation leveled against him from both the Left and the Right, most damagingly from his dynasty slayer, Donald Trump.
Democrats have long been obsessed with rising sea levels, and with good reason. When the Red Tide hits in November, they’ll be deep underwater.
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Lou Aguilar is a published novelist, produced screenwriter, and arts culture essayist. His latest novel, “The Christmas Spirit,” a Yuletide romantic ghost story, and two earlier books are available at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and great American bookstores.
Photo “Joe Biden” and “Kamala Harris” by Gage Skidmore. CC BY-SA 2.0.
