1 00:00:02,040 --> 00:00:04,400 This is the United States of America. 2 00:00:04,400 --> 00:00:07,780 You are totally free to express your political views. 3 00:00:07,780 --> 00:00:12,360 No one is going to tell you what you can say or how you can say it, right? 4 00:00:12,360 --> 00:00:16,760 But what if you thought you’d be audited by the IRS or have your business boycotted 5 00:00:16,769 --> 00:00:18,449 or even lose your job? 6 00:00:18,449 --> 00:00:20,429 Would you speak freely then? 7 00:00:20,429 --> 00:00:22,400 This isn’t a hypothetical question. 8 00:00:22,400 --> 00:00:24,800 It’s happening to Americans right now. 9 00:00:24,800 --> 00:00:27,699 It’s what I call “The Intimidation Game.” 10 00:00:27,699 --> 00:00:31,829 The object of this very real “game” is to make political opponents pay a high price 11 00:00:31,829 --> 00:00:34,040 for expressing their opinions. 12 00:00:34,040 --> 00:00:38,040 It was a standard technique in the Jim Crow South in the 1950’s. 13 00:00:38,040 --> 00:00:44,440 It was used by racist southern Democrats to shut up black civil rights groups like the NAACP. 14 00:00:44,440 --> 00:00:49,360 And now these tactics have been revived and improved upon by today’s Democratic Party 15 00:00:49,360 --> 00:00:51,660 and their allies on the Progressive Left. 16 00:00:51,660 --> 00:00:56,260 They want to shut up conservatives; just like racists once wanted to shut up blacks 17 00:00:56,260 --> 00:00:58,120 and their liberal supporters. 18 00:00:58,120 --> 00:01:00,000 They do it in three ways. 19 00:01:00,000 --> 00:01:06,900 First, they harass; Second, they investigate and prosecute; and third, they blackmail. 20 00:01:06,900 --> 00:01:09,220 Tactic number one: Harass. 21 00:01:09,220 --> 00:01:13,280 They sic federal and state agencies and bureaucrats on their political enemies. 22 00:01:13,280 --> 00:01:17,120 Remember the IRS targeting scandal that began in 2010? 23 00:01:17,120 --> 00:01:21,680 That’s when the IRS systematically denied or delayed non-profit status to more than 24 00:01:21,689 --> 00:01:25,989 400 citizen-activist groups, almost all conservative. 25 00:01:25,989 --> 00:01:30,749 These groups, representing tens of thousands of Americans, clearly met the IRS’s 26 00:01:30,749 --> 00:01:32,489 tax-exempt standards. 27 00:01:32,489 --> 00:01:37,309 But the IRS delay and denial made it impossible for these groups to raise or spend money 28 00:01:37,309 --> 00:01:40,129 during the 2012 presidential election. 29 00:01:40,129 --> 00:01:43,420 Had they been able to, would the election have turned out differently? 30 00:01:43,420 --> 00:01:44,900 We’ll never know. 31 00:01:44,900 --> 00:01:48,620 Some of these groups are still waiting for their nonprofit approval. 32 00:01:48,620 --> 00:01:52,840 Democrats continue to claim the scandal was the result of some rogue IRS agents 33 00:01:52,840 --> 00:01:54,720 who didn’t understand the law. 34 00:01:54,720 --> 00:01:56,100 Not true. 35 00:01:56,100 --> 00:02:00,220 We know from documents obtained through Congressional investigations and the Freedom of 36 00:02:00,220 --> 00:02:05,900 Information Act that the IRS was taking its cue from powerful Democrats and their left-wing allies, 37 00:02:05,909 --> 00:02:07,859 like MoveOn.org. 38 00:02:07,859 --> 00:02:12,619 For example, Michigan Senator Carl Levin repeatedly pressured the agency to investigate 39 00:02:12,620 --> 00:02:14,700 conservative non-profits. 40 00:02:14,700 --> 00:02:20,100 Meanwhile, in speeches, President Barack Obama warned about “shadowy” Tea Party groups. 41 00:02:20,110 --> 00:02:25,090 Lois Lerner, the head of the IRS’s non-profit division and a Democratic Party loyalist, 42 00:02:25,090 --> 00:02:26,590 took the hint. 43 00:02:26,590 --> 00:02:29,980 Tactic number two: Investigate and prosecute. 44 00:02:29,980 --> 00:02:35,200 In Wisconsin, Democrat prosecutors engaged in a bogus campaign-finance investigation 45 00:02:35,200 --> 00:02:40,420 into conservative groups that had supported Wisconsin’s Republican Governor Scott Walker. 46 00:02:40,420 --> 00:02:45,030 The prosecutors subpoenaed emails and financial records of the groups and its employees. 47 00:02:45,030 --> 00:02:49,070 They staged pre-dawn raids on the homes of Wisconsin conservatives, 48 00:02:49,070 --> 00:02:51,860 confiscating computers and correspondence. 49 00:02:51,860 --> 00:02:56,980 Then, they warned the victims of these phony investigations and terrorizing raids 50 00:02:56,980 --> 00:03:00,540 that they’d go to jail if they told anyone what was happening to them. 51 00:03:00,540 --> 00:03:03,980 It took the state Supreme Court to end this use of the government 52 00:03:03,980 --> 00:03:06,240 to suppress political opponents. 53 00:03:06,240 --> 00:03:12,120 But the message was sent by Democrats in Wisconsin: cross us, and you will pay a steep price. 54 00:03:12,120 --> 00:03:14,700 Tactic number three: Blackmail. 55 00:03:14,700 --> 00:03:19,340 The American Legislative Exchange Council, also known as ALEC, is a nonprofit that is 56 00:03:19,350 --> 00:03:23,330 very good at getting free-market legislation passed at the state level. 57 00:03:23,330 --> 00:03:28,000 It is supported by a number of corporate donors, Coca-Cola and Kraft once among them. 58 00:03:28,000 --> 00:03:32,720 In 2012 left-wing groups – who have long hated ALEC – had an idea: 59 00:03:32,720 --> 00:03:34,760 Target ALEC’s corporate donors. 60 00:03:34,760 --> 00:03:39,940 Threaten to run ads branding them as racists or climate deniers unless they pull their support. 61 00:03:39,940 --> 00:03:41,100 It worked. 62 00:03:41,100 --> 00:03:44,500 More than 100 major donors ended their funding. 63 00:03:44,500 --> 00:03:48,920 As if these three tactics weren’t bad enough, the Left has added a new weapon to its 64 00:03:48,920 --> 00:03:53,200 intimidation arsenal: forced disclosure of political donors. 65 00:03:53,200 --> 00:03:57,200 This is when the names of people who give money to a cause, or a candidate, 66 00:03:57,200 --> 00:03:58,700 are made public. 67 00:03:58,700 --> 00:04:02,420 Disclosure can be good when it lets citizens keep track of whose money 68 00:04:02,420 --> 00:04:04,640 may be influencing politicians. 69 00:04:04,640 --> 00:04:08,040 But it’s bad when it’s used to target and punish average Americans 70 00:04:08,040 --> 00:04:10,280 who make political donations. 71 00:04:10,280 --> 00:04:15,180 Left-wing activists in California used financial disclosure records to assemble a searchable 72 00:04:15,190 --> 00:04:21,709 map of every person who donated to California’s Prop 8 campaign supporting traditional marriage. 73 00:04:21,709 --> 00:04:25,149 The donors on that list had their cars keyed, their windows broken, 74 00:04:25,149 --> 00:04:27,369 and their businesses flash-mobbed. 75 00:04:27,369 --> 00:04:32,569 Some Prop 8 supporters even lost their jobs, most notably the CEO of Mozilla Firefox, 76 00:04:32,569 --> 00:04:34,020 Brendan Eich. 77 00:04:34,030 --> 00:04:36,890 So, how do we stop this intimidation? 78 00:04:36,890 --> 00:04:40,370 First, learn to recognize the Left’s bully tactics. 79 00:04:40,370 --> 00:04:41,720 They’re not subtle. 80 00:04:41,720 --> 00:04:46,790 Second, be very wary of initiatives to increase financial disclosure. 81 00:04:46,790 --> 00:04:50,350 They sound good, but they’re almost always just Left-wing attempts to get 82 00:04:50,350 --> 00:04:52,520 new names of people to intimidate. 83 00:04:52,520 --> 00:04:55,580 And finally, we must fight back. 84 00:04:55,580 --> 00:04:58,200 They can only win if we let them. 85 00:04:58,200 --> 00:04:59,700 We can’t let them. 86 00:04:59,700 --> 00:05:01,760 Our freedom depends on it. 87 00:05:01,760 --> 00:05:05,820 I’m Kimberly Strassel of The Wall Street Journal for Prager University.