Hold the Left Accountable for Their Actions

Have the past five years, often referred to as “the age of woke,” truly transpired — or was it merely a collective illusion?

It seems we’ve all conjured a period when COVID and cancel culture converged to constrain our freedoms.

There were no repercussions for expressing straightforward and factual statements, schools didn’t remain closed indefinitely due to teachers’ unions’ pressures, and racial tensions weren’t incessantly highlighted from all sides.

At least that’s the narrative the left wants us to swallow.

During a congressional hearing on Wednesday, National Public Radio CEO Katherine Maher struggled with answering simple inquiries regarding her own beliefs.

“Do you think America has a white supremacy addiction?” Rep. Brandon Gill questioned her.

Maher winced, as if finding that assertion absurd, but ultimately confessed, “I tweeted that.”

“However, as I have mentioned,” she continued, “a lot of my thinking has progressed over the past five years.”

We’re talking just five years — and Maher isn’t a young adult whose views shift easily. In her 40s, she leads a media organization with a significant number of staff.

Gill pressed on: “Do you believe that America subscribes to the idea of black plunder and white democracy?”

Maher, pretending that anyone could adopt such a strange stance, replied, “I . . . don’t . . . believe that, sir?”

Yet Gill pointed out she had indeed tweeted that belief in 2020, referencing “The Case for Reparations,” an extensive critique by Ta-Nehisi Coates.

Maher denied ever having read the article, even though Gill highlighted that her own tweet stated she was “taking a day off” to do just that.

For those of us who spent the last five years highlighting the absurdities coming from the left, this exchange was gratifying. We’ve had far too few moments like this.

Most of the time, we are met with gaslighting and denials.

During the COVID era, American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten emerged as a central antagonist.

In blue areas where politicians complied with Weingarten’s demands, schools remained closed longer. Conversely, schools reopened where her power was limited. These are the truths.

However, when Weingarten speaks, she portrays herself as a key proponent of the push to reopen schools.

Just last week, Weingarten told CNN host Brianna Keilar, “As you know . . . I wanted schools to reopen as early as April of 2020.”

“Right,” Keilar acknowledged. And that was it: history gets rewritten right before our eyes.

The individual who kept countless children out of school — primarily disadvantaged kids lacking alternative educational options — is now recasting herself as the heroine and seemingly getting away with it.

Keilar knows it’s a false narrative, yet it benefits her position to perpetuate the lie.

In August 2021, during a particularly distasteful news segment, Keilar and co-host John Berman reported that four educators in Broward County, Fla., had succumbed to COVID in a single day.

They blamed Gov. Ron DeSantis, a convenient target, for reopening schools against Weingarten’s wishes and failing to enforce mask mandates.

What they omitted: Schools in Broward County hadn’t yet opened; the teachers had died during summer vacation.

Now, we are told that both Weingarten and Keilar favored keeping schools open, and we’re deemed irrational for believing otherwise.

This week also featured The Atlantic’s Jonathan Chait asserting that leftists are undergoing some sort of COVID reckoning while conservatives are not.

Perhaps because the left has gotten everything regarding COVID so terribly wrong, imposed nonsensical regulations on the rest of us, and has never offered an apology for any of it?

Oh no, Chait reassures us: “Liberals got some things about the pandemic right and other things wrong, and over time, many have disavowed or at least distanced themselves from their erroneous beliefs.”

Where? When?

Chait himself spent recent years pushing conspiracy theories about Florida’s COVID vaccination rates, obsessively holding on to his distorted narrative. Has he ever acknowledged his misconceptions?

And what about all those who faced shadow-banning or lost their jobs for opposing COVID school closures, effectively silenced for stating truths all along?

Did they receive an apology? Do they deserve reparations?

The last five years occurred, despite the left’s desire to erase that history.

There is a tendency to simply move on without any responsibility or acknowledgment for their absurdities. As a notable figure once stated: What difference, at this point, does it make?

Yet, this matters significantly. We’re still entrenched in numerous misguided ideas and policies championed by the left.

Transgender girls continue to compete in girls’ sports — and every single Senate Democrat this month voted against legislation intended to prohibit it.

They may be dismissing some of their erratic beliefs, but certainly not all.

We simply cannot allow the left to pretend the arduous last five years never took place. It’s imperative to directly challenge the fabrications, the historical revisions, and the derision towards ideas they once deemed essential.

Those who imposed the most detrimental policies and forced them upon the rest of us cannot now revise their narratives.

Karol Markowicz is co-author of the book “Stolen Youth.”