The goal here should be to start a movement independent of political views. Anyone who is willing to acknowledge that the Left is killing free speech and hurting the culture is welcome. There must be millions of people in the country who fit these criteria, the problem is people are clinging closely to ideological camps, and the media only invites partisan guests to speak who are willing to tow the party line. If most people felt this way, Donald Trump would not be president.
Working with independents and liberals would be a big step, but none of this works without the never-Trumpers. I understand that if they haven’t changed their tune on President Trump in two years, they never will. However, they have to be rational and stop being petty for the good of the country. Let’s assume they are correct about Donald Trump. It makes sense, then, to speak out about how bad he is. Where the never-Trumpers go wrong is they fall for the Left’s trick. They buy into the ‘Trump is evil so anything goes’ mentality. There are two examples of this. The first is many of them never have anything good to say about Trump. Even the most ardent critic of the president, if conservative, can find something they like about his policies or his administrative picks; they can find none. The second is they tell people to vote for Democrats. This is telling, since the president is not on the ballot this fall.
So, to them, every Republican is Trump. this also means they are willing to overlook all of the wacky propositions the Left is advancing. I don’t think I’m asking too much to have conservative Trump haters stop promoting Democrats and point out the troubles the country faces if the culture continues to decline. Their voices would carry extra weight, since no one can accuse them of defending Trump and their anti-Trump stance makes them the only venerated Republicans in the country.
PUSH BACK
This new strand of leftism is aggressive. When I was in my twenties, they were methodical in their movements. They did affirmative but subtle things to advance their agenda. Now that their foundation has solidified, they are ready for an all-out assault on what’s left of traditional norms. It’s as if they are sleeper cells and have been activated. It seems like yesterday the country was debating whether same-sex marriage should be the law of the land. Since then, we’ve moved so far so fast, it’s shocking that was even considered debatable.
We’ve seen a president blackmail schools into allowing transgender students to use the bathroom of their choice; boys competing in girls’ sports, beating them handily; parents and schools allowing elementary school students to pick their gender; and a movie where a woman has sex with a sea creature win best picture. I think it’s safe to say that traditional Americans have let go of the rope in this crucial game of tug-of-war.
The situation is pretty grim, but it’s not too late to make a change. The first step is the most obvious one, push back. The Left must face some resistance. To some, silence is acceptance. When the socialists say they want to abolish the police, you can’t just roll your eyes and keep moving. People need to say just how foolish that is. We can’t expect the media to do it. Has anyone asked Ocasio-Cortez, if we abolish borders, prison, and the police, then ban guns, who is going to protect us from the newly released prisoners, brandishing illegal guns, after the Left tears down the criminal justice system?
This is one thing we have going for us; the Left is awful. They are so extreme, bitter, vile, judgmental, and often violent that most people who aren’t on the left has to view them with opprobrium. It’s important to point out how they operate without getting dragged down in the mire with them. We would simply expose the Left for the fascistic tactics they use, evidenced by the myriad examples they provide us on a daily basis.
When people are attacked by the mob, they need to fight back. Don’t apologize if you don’t think you did anything wrong. Those attacking you won’t believe you anyway. Just once I’d like to see a comedian, under fire for an insensitive joke, say, “It was a joke, get over it. Hey, at least I didn’t suggest that people die.”
Let me be clear, we should not be asking that Bill Maher, Michelle Wolf, John Oliver, or Joy Behar be fired, we should just demand consistency. Either everyone can make hateful comments on air, or no one can.
Some of these employers need to get spines as well. It seems like the only leaders who stand by their employees in a crisis are leftist. The New York Times is standing by Sarah Jeong, UC Fresno stood by the professor who said she was glad Barbara Bush was dead, and MSNBC is standing behind Joy Reid, in spite of her lying about her hateful comments. But Kevin Williamson, James Demore, and Hank Williams, Jr. didn’t get the same protection from the Atlantic, Google, and the NFL respectively.
We don’t need to stage a boycott every time someone makes a comment we don’t like, but when companies let us know they don’t want business from people like us, we should oblige them. We can also counter this by going out of our way, when possible, to support businesses that share our values. This is a positive move rather than the typical anger from the Left.
Next, it’s important to engage everyone you can. This doesn’t mean getting into shouting matches with family or debates with strangers at the dry cleaners, it simply means finding out what average people think about the issues in the news by asking probing questions. When I’m in a business and something political comes on, I just say, “Crazy, huh?” to see if they’ll bite. You’ll be surprised where the conversations may go.
I do this everywhere I go. I discuss issues at work, with family, at concerts, dinner parties, you name it. Once you engage, you have to know your stuff. When you speak to people from all walks of life, you never know what their views will be. You are bound to come in contact with someone who only knows leftist talking point. They’ve never heard an alternative view, so you have one chance to make an impact. No pressure.
I usually give them enough to make them question what they’ve been told without trying to shatter their views in one conversation. If, for instance the conversation lead to socialist things: free healthcare, tuition etc. I say something like this, “I can see why you’d find that appealing. Keep in mind that governments are run by people and if you give them too much control, they will eventually do things that you don’t like. What will you do then when you’ve relinquished so much power?” Then I give them a couple examples from the country leftists most want us to emulate: Denmark.
I tell them to Google Denmark’s plan to eradicate immigrant ‘ghettos’ and force them to learn ‘Danish Values.’197 I then say, “They also have a veil ban, blasphemy laws, an official language, and an official religion.198 Look that up too, I wouldn’t want you to take my word for it. That is how I end the conversation. If I see them again, I follow up, otherwise, I hope that I gave them enough to make them reconsider granting too much power to the government.
Some may not be willing to engage strangers in political conversations, especially in this climate. There are other steps you can take. You should contact your representative, especially if he is a leftist. They get lost in their own beliefs, someone has to let them know that the people they represent don’t necessarily agree with them. They are also always campaigning. If you can solicit enough support for an idea, fear of losing an election would force him to pay attention.
You could donate to causes that are doing the fighting for you. There are many groups pushing back on many fronts: leftist college ideology, educating young conservatives, defending those attacked by the Left, etc. Find one and donate cash. Seek out those who think like you. You’d be surprised how many logical people there are out there, even in liberal bastions like Chicago.
Using the tactics in this chapter is the catalyst to turning the tide on our culture. It is not going to be easy or a quick fix, but the first step must be taken. We need to be vigilant, keeping the steps concise. Get them to state their actual goals; give them their argument; educate people; push back when attacked; repeat.
If we do this everywhere we can, people will listen. When you get discouraged, look at the Left. They st
arted with subtle moves, quietly chipping away at the traditional norms. They lost a lot of battles but kept moving. Now they are dominating every sector of the culture. Why can’t we do the same to build the country up rather than tear it down?
I’ve given a lot of information about the direction of our culture and its negative impact. It was important to thoroughly explain the problems, give clear examples, and describe what the problems will lead to if we allow the decline to continue. I’m hoping this will reinforce some things the reader knew and teach them some new details they can use to debate those still living in the dark. I understand it is natural for people to take a passive role. I hope that through these examples they realize that the majority of the Left’s success in the cultural shift can be attributed to the fact that we sat idly by as it happened.
I’d love for everyone who reads this book to use it as a guide for dealing with the Left in a new and direct way. I know I said a lot here, so I’d like everyone to take two things from this book. (1) Human nature is flawed and while we should fight our negative nature, this is not something that can be fixed with new laws or a new type of government. (2) Think about true equality. Any plan that gives one group preference over another should be instantly dismissed. Keep in mind that it’s not a right or equality if someone else has to give something up for you to have it.
Afterword
Information moves incredibly fast. One of the most difficult aspects of writing this book was maintaining focus with so much in the news that is relevant to the topic. In the final months, as I was completing this book, I tried to cut myself off from any news reports, or at least not consider them. This was extremely difficult as many would have fit perfectly into the book. A few even made it in. But I desperately needed to maintain my goal, which was to paint a broad picture of the cultural change. I needed to make it evident that the cultural shift to the Left did not start in 2016. Therefore, the references could not be too heavily weighted to the last year and a half.
In writing a book that is predicated on your opinion, you need to do a strong job of backing up your points. Examples are key. This leads to a lot of research. What I found is that researching history, while tedious, is nothing compared to finding examples of behavior in the media and pop culture. Not because there aren’t enough, but because there are too many. My memory was tested often during this process. In many cases, I wanted to tell a specific story I recalled, but I had forgotten some of the details. Because of this, I did a lot of ‘Guy in a city who said that thing to an Asian woman’ type of searches.
I also didn’t want to be viewed as living in an echo chamber, using skewed data from sources favorable to conservatives. I, therefore, tried to avoid conservative sources as much as possible. You will see no references to Breitbart, the Blaze, Drudge Report, or talk radio. If I used them, it’s only because I had a specific story to tell and the liberal outlets didn’t run it or there was a specific quote or interview I wanted to reference. Of the 211 endnotes, there are only two such examples (In full disclosure, there is one more in this section referencing George W. Bush).
For instance, in the chapter on income, I pointed out that there are tens of thousands of jobs currently going unfilled, with no college degree required, that pay more than the $15 an hour the Left is demanding. Mike Rowe did an interview that was a perfect illustration of what I was describing. He did the interview on Tucker Carlson Tonight, so I had to reference Fox News. Most of the stories I reference, however, come from the New York Times, the Guardian, CNN, and the Washington Post, hardly right-wing publications.
There are obviously many talented conservatives with TV programs, radio shows, magazines, and podcasts. This means I left out many examples that perfectly align with my arguments, because of the source. This left me reliant upon stories delivered with a liberal slant. The media bias that conservatives speak about is not only evident in the dubious ways in which they cover national news stories, it is glaring in the stories they don’t cover.
Take gun control as an example. Most of the mainstream media support increased gun control measures. Because of this, they rarely report cases of criminals being stopped or women protecting themselves through legal gun possession. These stories don’t help their cause so they are largely ignored. There are many stories like this that would have strengthened my points, but I didn’t use them because they are mostly reported in conservative outlets. Fortunately, though left-leaning, many outlets still ran pieces with journalistic integrity, at least they did prior to Trump’s election.
As I noted above, I tried to steer clear of Donald Trump for as long as I could. Because my focus is the culture, giving too much attention to attacks on Trump or spending too much time defending him, would have taken away from the important message of the book. It is, however, important to make it clear that neither the country’s problems nor the attacks on conservatives are truly about Donald Trump. He simply makes himself an easy target both by his manner of speaking or unorthodox ways and by attacking the Left; they’ve never seen that before.
The vitriol against Trump is so bad that people conveniently forget how Republican presidents, or candidates for president, have been treated by the Left. Mitt Romney, John McCain, and George W. Bush are nearly folk heroes on the Left today. Look at all of the positive press they’ve gotten since Trump announced his presidential run. Being a conservative who speaks out against Trump apparently absolves all past sins. But let’s take a look back.
When Mitt Romney was the 2012 Republican presidential nominee, he wasn’t taken as seriously as he is when he’s bashing Trump. Instead he was a wealthy plutocrat who liked firing poor people.199 In fact, he was a sexist (for carrying around ‘binders full of women’),200 a purveyor of animal cruelty (for forcing a dog to ride on top of a car),201 a homophobe (for allegedly having bullied a gay teen back in high school),202 and a murderer (for being the cause of a woman’s death with his evil corporate takeovers).203 They even mocked him for his crazy belief that Russia was a threat to the US.
George W. Bush is no longer the Rodney Dangerfield of politics. One thinly veiled attack on President Trump and he’s the toast of the town. Liberals joyously quote him and celebrate his return to the media spotlight … Glenn Greenwald called him “a good man,” while Jedd Legum, the editor of ThinkProgress, asked, “When did George W. Bush become the voice of reason?”204 This is a far cry from their old tune.
In 2005, Glenn Greenwald said, “George W. Bush is a pillaging, torturing war criminal who let a city drown.” He was not alone. People chanted ‘Bush lied, people died’ nearly his entire presidency. He was also a racist and stupid. Remember, Ivy League degrees only mean you’re smart if you’re on the Left. There was even a TV show on Comedy Central that mocked him, That’s My Bush!, and a movie that recounted the events leading up to his fictional assassination, Death of a President. Some even compared him to, wait for it, Hitler.205
John McCain has gotten mixed results from the Left. They are as schizophrenic toward him as his policy decisions have been within Republican ranks. He is an honest politician when reaching across the aisle (McCain-Feingold), and a right-wing extremist when working with the Republicans. As far as attacks from the Left, he faired far better than both Romney and Bush. He was just mentally unstable, misogynistic (allegedly called his wife a c**t in public), racist (supported the Confederate flag and voted against MLK Day), and a war monger (changed the words of the Beach Boys song Barbara Ann to Bomb Iran).206 If that wasn’t enough, he was out of touch, had cancer four times, and would die in office.207 His supporters, like Trump’s, were also racists.208
These are examples that, though Trump is different, the labeling of Republicans is not. To codify my argument that the two sides don’t act the same, people are punching Trump supporters, putting them out of restaurants, trying to run them over because they have MAGA bumper stickers, and snatching hats from them. Did these things happen to Obama supporters when he was president?
> All of this ties into the cultural issues America faces. When discussing demands for equality, one cannot ignore cultural norms and societal behaviors. These things play a dramatic part in how people perceive they are being treated as well as what determines their idea of equality. Many know Richard Carlson’s famous book, Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff, and It’s All Small Stuff. I often joke that I live by an alternate version of this, “Only sweat the small stuff.” I’m only half joking, as I believe the small stuff leads to the big stuff. A thief doesn’t start a life of crime by breaking into Fort Knox. A drug dealer doesn’t start a drug empire by purchasing directly from the head of a Cartel. The same holds for bad behavior. Before we get to intolerance, violence, or discrimination, there are small actions that act as indicators.
I like to monitor behavior. It’s fascinating to see how nice the average person can be, at times, and rude and selfish at other times. In this climate, the Right, myself included, likes to point out the nastiness of the Left with regard to reactions they have against varying political views; however, I notice this behavior in smaller arenas with people across the political spectrum.
You can no longer get off of a train or elevator without someone nearly running you over to get on. The same goes for driving in rush hour traffic. When there is a long line to merge, several drivers will inevitably drive to the front of the line and force their way in. I see this and wonder, what do these people do when they aren’t driving? This behavior says something about their character.
Let’s look at another example, breastfeeding. Women have been doing it for years with no issue. All of a sudden, it became a civil rights issue. Women demanded dedicated places to breastfeed. Then, even this wasn’t enough. They needed to be able to breastfeed, in public, with exposed breasts, and people, especially men, were not allowed to look at them. Because we no longer judge behavior, people remained silent. Recently, a runway model walked the runway at a show while breastfeeding her child.209This is a direct result of the Left pushing the envelope and the rest of us saying nothing about it.
We Want Equality Page 19