While politicians are still talking about restoring civility, liberal thugs are waging an all out attack on the website of David Rivkin, lead counsel in the multi-state lawsuit against Obamacare, rather than engage in a civilized debate that they can’t win. And what do the ACLU and other left-leaning civil rights groups have to say about these attempts to silence a leading voice for freedom and liberty? Not a thing.
Rivkin represents 26 States, the National Federation of Independent Business, and two individuals in the most prominent and successful challenge to Obamacare. He’s been a prominent critic of the law’s individual mandate from the beginning, and is used to engaging in intellectual battle—it comes with the territory. But this is something far different.
One week after federal district judge Roger Vinson held that the mandate was unconstitutional and struck down the entire law, Rivkin’s website came under attack by a highly organized group of cyber-terrorists seeking to silence him and knock his views off the Internet.
Just like the recent attacks by Wikileaks supporters on Amazon.com, MasterCard, and PayPal—attacks that have led to international investigations that remain ongoing and several arrests—unknown hacktivists from IP addresses located overseas took aim at Rivkin’s website, bombarding it with fake traffic and intrusion attempts. They managed to destroy entire sections of the site dedicated to his advocacy on behalf of the states in the health care law suit.
The ongoing criminal attacks have been reported to the Federal Bureau of Investigation, which is charged with investigating denial of service cyber attacks.
Perhaps the most amazing aspect of this episode is the complete disregard of this attack by the mainstream media and left-wing civil liberties groups. Imagine, for example, a similar attack on the website of the plaintiffs in the challenge to California’s Proposition 8, which struck down same-sex marriage in the state. Imagine the outrage, finger-pointing, and howls of indignation that would follow. The media, as well as the ACLU and others, would be quick to condemn conservatives, and many prominent conservatives, no doubt, would disassociate themselves from the cyber-attack. And rightly so—conservatives don’t need to cheat or break the law to win the war of ideas.
Rivkin’s sober and scholarly advocacy in favor of Americans’ fundamental rights is clearly a threat to someone, and they have decided to attack him for it. Even on the Internet, thugs shouldn’t get a “heckler’s veto” over speech with which they disagree. One would think that’s a point on which conservatives and left-leaning civil libertarians could agree. But all we’ve heard so far from the left is silence.