This is an excellent read written by John Heyward at TR so I posted the article in full. In every poignant issue it lists deftly describes my sentiments exactly on how I view what it means to be conservative! It’s a fight to the death with progressives who seek to destroy the things we hold dear as true Americans!
*“I wonder if any of the super-duper-principled True Conservatives are going to criticize the totalitarian Democrats for their LGBT town hall, which was filled with vows to shred the Constitution and use raw State power to socially engineer the American people. *
*We hear a lot of nasty cracks from that crowd about religious conservative voters selling their souls to support Trump. Let them explain how conservative purity requires handing the country over to the left-wingers who just spent all night vowing to destroy religious freedom. *
*This was never difficult to understand, and it was never hypocrisy from evangelicals. The handwriting was on the wall during the Obama administration. They knew perfectly well what a President Hillary would unleash upon them. *
*It’s not just a religious freedom issue, either. Criticize Trump however you like, but he isn’t aggressively trying to use the power of the State to forcibly remake the electorate. His most aggressive uses of executive power have been efforts to PREVENT others from doing so. *
*You want to talk about bedrock conservative principles? Intrinsic to the very notion of conservatism is resisting the use of coercive force to make people abandon their beliefs and live according to the whims of those who have power over them. *
This is the core reason for “conserving” anything. Conservatism is not thoughtless, stubborn resistance to new ideas. It is determined resistance against the use of force to make people kneel to ideas they disagree with. It is respect for the sovereign individual.
*Conservatism is about understanding why long-cherished ideals are held and respecting those who embrace them; knowing why the fence is there before you tear it down. Change should come through PERSUASION, not compulsion, and the answer might be “no.” *
*If you’re not ready to do whatever it takes to protect the Bill of Rights, the 1st and 2nd Amendments - and that VERY CLEARLY requires defeating the Democrat candidate in 2020 by all means necessary - then in what sense are you an American “conservative?” *
*If you’re willing to put the totalitarian social engineers on the Democrat stage last night in power, then at BEST you’re a progressive with a few qualms about their uglier methods and most extreme goals. You’ve conceded defeat to them and just want to negotiate a few details. *
*Everyone is disgusted with the NBA kowtowing to Communist China right now. Well, there isn’t much difference in principle between Beijing and the Democrats on the topic of political supremacy over religion and individual conscience. The ChiComs are more brutal and efficient. *
*If you can’t resist the spread of that toxic ideology into American politics with every fiber of your being, with every word you write, then you’re not much of a conservative. This IS the hill you should be ready to die on. It’s really the only hill there is. All else is valleys. *
*All that snark about “but muh judges” reflects the same basic misunderstanding of the situation. Yes, it matters VERY MUCH to the future, indeed the very survival, of conservatism that Donald Trump has been appointing and nominating all those judges, not Hillary Clinton. *
*It matters VERY MUCH that the ugly totalitarians on that Democrat stage do not get to appoint judges for the next 4 years, or use executive power to punish their ideological enemies, or nullify laws inconvenient to their agenda, or use migration to remodel the electorate. *
*Our elections are binary choices. Wishing it were not so and fantasizing about third-party ideological crusades does not change that reality. Your choice in 2020 will be between totalitarianism and whoever the GOP candidate is. The Dems are making that painfully clear. *
*If you can find a better champion against totalitarianism in the GOP primary and persuade voters to support them, great. That’s what primaries are for. Make your case with all due passion and all necessary honor. Realistically, all but impossible to beat incumbent president. *
*But once the candidates are chosen, your choices are either using all of your conservative intellect and energy to defeat the Democrat, or endorsing the use of raw government force to inflict mortal wounds on conservatism. Defense doesn’t get to sit out red-zone plays. *
*If any of these Democrats gets into the White House, conservatism is going to become a stuffed and mounted animal on the wall of a drawing room where academics can while away their days discussing What Might Have Been if things had gone better after Reagan left office. *
*Conservatism is going to become a very small banner under which a few influential writers and politicians can gather to demand payoffs for their cooperation from the permanent left-wing masters of the total State. It will have no relevance to the lives of average working people. *
I’m a lifelong reader of conservative publications, a fan of some people that will not like what I’ve written here. And I tell you: if you aren’t willing to fight to conserve the most basic of American rights, I’m not that interested in hearing what you DO want to conserve.”