‘Once a government is committed to the principal of silencing the voice of opposition, it has only one way to go, and that is down the path of increasingly repressive measures, until it becomes a source of terror to all its citizens and creates a country where everyone lives in fear.”

Few remember the warning issued by President Harry Truman in his Special Message to the Congress on the Internal Security of the United States on Aug. 8, 1950, but we appear to be taking the first steps toward that reality.

With the last election behind us, the Democratic Party has control of all three branches of the federal government. Not content with those victories, many on the left are pushing their agenda to extremes. Now there is talk of a roundup, purge, and re-education of anyone who supported Donald Trump, a radical idea promoted by the likes of Katie Couric; major TV and cable networks are refusing to interview conservative spokesmen, saying there is no room for liars on their network; major publishing companies have talked about establishing a “Black List” by refusing to publish books or articles by anyone associated with the Trump administration or any purveyors of conservative views.

My Pillow chief executive Mike Lindell, an avid President Donald Trump backer, says that Kohl’s, Bed Bath & Beyond, Wayfair, and other retailers are dropping his products.

CNN and other cable providers are seeking to ban Fox from expressing conservative views. Facebook, and Twitter have not only banned the president of the United States, they have also dropped other conservative groups, like the Walk Away Movement, Parler and OAN as well.

And now, President Biden’s Department of Homeland Security nominee, Alejandro Mayorkas, said he will empower intelligence staff at the agency to gather information on the domestic extremist threat.

Traditional Democrats, wake up and take back control of your party. These are not the actions of the the Trumans, Kennedys, or Jeffersons, the greats of your glorious party.

George Santayana also warned us, “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”

Let’s hope we never have to repeat the experiences of Pastor Martin Niemoller, who wrote:

“First they came for the Communists, and I did not speak out because I was not a Communist.

“Then they came for the Socialists, and I did not speak out because I was not a Socialist.

“Then they came for the Trade Unionists and I did not speak out because I was not a Trade Unionist.

“Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out because I was not a Jew.

“Then they came for me, and there was no one left to speak out for me.”

Should we fail to heed Truman’s warning, we may live George Orwell’s vision from 1984.

“Every record has been destroyed or falsified, every book rewritten, every picture has been repainted, every statute and street building has been renamed, every date has been altered. And the process is continuing day by day and minute by minute. History has stopped. Nothing exists except an endless present in which the Party is always right.”

(Leigh Bosse lives in Hillsborough.)