How Dr. Richard Levine saved Western civilization

Little did 53-year-old pediatrician Dr. Richard Levine suspect in 2011 that by rebranding himself mid-life as “Dr. Rachel Levine” he would one day save Western civilization.

Few would give Levine credit for the save. In fact, the good doctor would be horrified to know that people associated the word “save” with the outcome of the 2024 presidential election. And yet the link, though indirect, is there. Levine deserves credit as much as anyone.

I say “rebrand” here with some respect. In 2011, Levine could not have made a better career move. As “Richard,” Levine was going nowhere. A homely, chubby unhappily married father of two, Levine was treading water as a prof in the pediatrics department at Penn State University.

A football fan, Levine had to be unhappy with the scandals roiling the Penn State campus. The same year he formally changed gender, 2011, Penn State changed head football coaches, dumping legendary coach Joe Paterno the day after Levine’s 54th birthday. Time for the doc to move on.

Bruce Jenner would famously change gender four years later, but the former Olympian did not exploit the change for personal gain or expect the world to conform to the demands of the growing transgender movement. Jenner, in fact, remains a Republican and became a crusader against boys playing girls’ sports.

Levine, by contrast, used the new identity to climb the political ladder and use his lofty perch to demand radical social change – or else. In 2015, the ambitious doctor was named physician general of Pennsylvania and soon after Pennsylvania’s secretary of health.

Levine’s disastrous handling of COVID caught the attention of the incoming Biden administration. Recognizing incompetence when he saw it, Biden designated Dr. Levine to serve as the 17th assistant secretary for health for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

Levine was the first transgender appointee to be confirmed by the Senate as well as the highest-ranking transgender official in U.S. history.

For these accomplishments, USA Today, “in recognition of women across the country who have made a significant impact,” designated Levine as one of its “women of the year.”

The Babylon Bee, a satire site, was one of those places that “believe in science,” in this case biology. In light of this belief its impish editors designated Levine “man of the year.”

As was becoming clear to half of America, the Biden administrated had all but outlawed humor. The DOJ, in fact, leaned on the major social media platforms to police any jokes that challenged the orthodoxy of the day.

Not that the social media mavens needed to have their arms twisted. They were virtually all on board with the Democratic agenda whatever that happened to be at the moment.

So, dutifully, Twitter suspended the Babylon Bee. “It was an egregious example of how speech was being curbed,” said Bee CEO Seth Dillon.

Industrialist Elon Musk, a real-life John Galt, was made aware of the suspension by ex-wife Talulah Riley. She told the Tesla CEO about the suspension in March 2022 and encouraged him to buy Twitter and make it “radically free-speech.”

The former “Obama fanboy” had taken his first red pill two years earlier when the state of California tried to shut down a Tesla plant during the state’s interminable COVID season.

Once his eyes were opened, Musk began to see just how pervasive and one-sided censorship was in the age of Obama-Biden. He called Dillon soon after the suspension.

“He wanted to confirm that we had, in fact, been suspended,” Dillon tweeted after the call. “He even mused on that call that he might need to buy Twitter.” Buy it he did, credit to Dr. Levine where due.

“I certainly wouldn’t say that it was the only reason that he spent $44 billion to acquire Twitter and make it a free-speech platform,” said Dillon. “But maybe it was the icing on the cake.”

With the purchase of the world’s leading source of information, Musk has all but leveled the media playing field. Increasingly over the past half century, the “mainstream” media – TV networks, newspapers, the entertainment industry, social media platforms – had drifted leftwards.

By 2020, they were all in for the Democrats and the progressive agenda. Musk’s purchase made it increasingly difficult for them to peddle disinformation.

Thanks in no small part to Twitter, the right was able to push back against the radical transgender movement and its most visible champions, including Levine and Kamala Harris.

In the 2024 campaign, the Trump camp used images of Levine and Harris to show just how hostile to common sense the Left had become. The strategy worked.

At least for the moment Western civilization was saved. Thanks, Doc!