Just so you know, I am a big fan of Mike Rowe.  Of course his extended apprenticeships on Dirty Jobs are now a part of pop culture history, along with his narration on Deadliest Catch and others series.  He’s even done commercials for Lee Jeans and Ford Trucks over the past few years.  What I like about him though is he is actually doing something about the skills gap that currently exists in the workforce.  All good things, but then he does a commercial for Wal-Mart and the Leftists throw a fit.

Here is the commercial in question:

Seems like a good thing, right?  For years we have heard about jobs going overseas to places like China and India, which has led to factory closures and economic disruption in the communities they are located in.  Now Wal-Mart is changing course and committing to buy $250 billion in US-made goods over the next decade.  Given Mike Rowe’s support for honest work and skilled labor, he was a natural choice to do the voiceover for this this commercial.

The result of this is a firestorm of controversy from the Left that painted him as some sort of shill for a heartless corporate giant they don’t like.  While the truth is more simple and benign than the uninformed journalistic hacks make it out to be, that didn’t stop them from generating heat instead of light on the subject.  Instead of embracing the message of the commercial (increased manufacturing in America!) the Left decided to go nuts and lash out.  Ace talks about this over at his blog about the tribal nature of this attack, which represent another example of intellectual dishonesty and mindless emotion directed against an entity they despise.

So why am I posting about this?  The overriding message is even if you set out to do the right thing, you will be subject to ridicule and personal attacks for not conforming to the leftist media norm.  Working, preparing, learning skills, building families, and strengthening communities WITHOUT GOVERNMENT INVOLVEMENT represents an existential threat to the so-called “progressives.”  Individual effort and self-organization represent the truest American values of independence and freedom, anybody who supports that outwardly will be subject to attack.  The collapse of the Blue Social Model won’t go away quietly and this episode represents an example of what will increasingly happen in the future as people turn away from government for solutions to problems.

Mike Rowe is doing the right thing despite the controversy, I encourage all preparation-minded people to do likewise.