Well, well, well, it clearly isn’t Russia that Americans should worry about when it comes to election interference. Americans needn’t look beyond the borders. This shouldn’t come as a surprise considering the DNC stole the nomination from Bernie Sanders during the 2016 Democratic Primary. Furthermore, in a more recent example, former Democrat candidate for the 2020 U.S. Presidential Election Tulsi Gabbard sued Google for suspending her advertising account. Much like Google, it looks like Comcast will also get away with its misdeeds and election interference scot-free. Gee, where is the beloved Robert Mueller’s enthusiasm to investigate these companies, which are domestic enemies of liberty and justice that unlike Russia, are actually on domestic soil!
Now, conservative activist Laura Loomer, who is currently running for Congress on the Republican ticket to represent Florida’s 21st district, has now been banned by Xfinity/Comcast. As Loomer explains, “In an incredible turn of events, Comcast/Xfinity just banned my campaign from sending out fundraising emails and text messages,” Apparently, Comcast finds Loomer’s messages to be “dangerous content”, without actually defining what dangerous means, similar to how YouTube censors videos for violating vague “Community Guideline” standards. It is already bad enough that Comcast/Xfinity is essentially a monopoly, as in many regions in the U.S., that company is the sole provider of decent internet service. This author has personally had consistently lousy customer service with Comcast, with no alternative internet service provider to alleviate the pain. Furthermore, businesses that open themselves to the public, like Xfinity/Comcast, are not supposed to discriminate, as per the Civil Rights Act, even on the basis of political affiliation. Imagine the backlash a Caucasian Republican restaurant owner would get for banning disabled people from his/her restaurant!
It also appears that Loomer was leading in the polls, despite the unjust disadvantages her campaign has been facing. Furthermore, her opponent, Lori Frankel, is one of 31 members of Congress who owns stock in Comcast. This appears to be a classic case of a conflict of interest. Loomer’s opponent owns stock in the only company available in the area to provide her essential internet service to reach her voters and run her campaign – how very inconvenient.
Look, this author is not one of Loomer’s voters, but election interference makes this author very, very angry, as it should everyone else. Even if Loomer wouldn’t get this author’s vote, election interference is never justifiable. Loomer’s position to use the power of government to break up the Comcast/Xfinity Internet Service Provider quasi-monopoly is very problematic as it gives government more power that violates its hardly-effective Constitutional restraints, which in turn puts liberty in an even riskier position than it already is today. However, no company, or any entity for that matter, should be allowed to meddle in U.S. elections like this. Otherwise, how is the U.S. any better than, with all due respect, third-world Banana Republics like Cuba, Venezuela, and Russia that are well-known to lack fair and legitimate elections, and where interference is therefore the norm rather than the exception? Furthermore, although companies like Comcast/Xfinity are private, and should therefore be able to decide who to accept and/or deny as customers, how will civilization deal with this dangerous precedent, as it appears Comcast/Xfinity will get away with its misdeeds scot-free?
If Comcast can deny Loomer service just for her political affiliation, and for actually having the courage to run for Congressional office, what is to stop any company from denying service for other illegitimate reasons? What if your water or electric company shuts off service because you happen to be conservative, libertarian, or Republican? Perhaps this will have a dangerous chilling effect that keeps good candidates that would otherwise run on the Republican party from doing so, knowing the similar fate to Loomer’s that they likely may face. What if a hospital refused care to conservative leaning patients? You already probably will be denied care if you exercise your innate and fundamental liberty to take a dangerous and harmful vaccine. If we have the sense to know that denying service on the basis of things such as race, gender and sexual orientation are wrong, then it should be more than easy to acknowledge that denying service on political affiliation is wrong too, especially when it is election meddling, such as in Loomer’s care. Imagine the uproar if this was happening to the Democrat candidates – CNN, CBS, ABC, NBC, and even Fox wouldn’t let us hear the end of it.
Many may rightfully ask, well what can we do? Beyond allowing ourselves to acknowledge this dark and dystopian reality, reinforcing the fact that even America the beautiful is no longer a free or just country, find a way to not be so dependent on these companies like Comcast. How do we do that? Hopefully we can find at least a satisfactory answer to that question before it becomes too late, if it isn’t already.