THIS is the greatest threat to a free society

If you put all the pieces of the left’s efforts to crush dissent together, the picture is disturbing – and more than a little frightening.

One of the key principles of playing go, or wei qi as the Chinese and Japanese call their favorite board game, is to look at the entire board before every move. To win, you must always have a sense of all the possibilities and your opponent’s situation before you make a move.

If you look up from the gossip and noise of Washington and look at the entire board of American politics, the emerging picture is the greatest threat to a free society in our lifetime – maybe since the Civil War.

Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher taught conservatives that “first you win the argument, then you win the vote.”

Beginning with President Reagan, conservatives have gotten better and better at winning the argument.