As I watched the news this morning and the debacle of the Afghanistan withdrawal, like many Americans I pondered “How did we get to this point?” Then the current copy of the paper arrived, and I had a chance to read a lengthy diatribe from a frequent contributor talking about what a horrible group of conservatives live and work in White County. After all, in the last election I believe more than 80% of the voters voted Republican, so the derogatory comments were addressed to the majority of those who live and work here.
Like many conservatives I find that we have a problem not addressed in his diatribe. Conservatives are by definition, well conservative. We typically stop, think, and take action after considering alternatives to our behavior. Typically, we don’t march, protest, accuse, or otherwise openly display our displeasure with events. When we lose elections we pause, work to figure out what went wrong, and then formulate plans to do better next time. We quietly support our schools, police, military service personnel, and veterans. We advocate for personal responsibility and typically shun government intervention in our daily lives. And we have a deep appreciation for our nation’s historical events, both good and bad, and realize that it is the amalgamation of those events that make us who we are.
But therein lies another problem. For too long by staying silent we have allowed small, vocal segments of our society to drive the narrative. By thinking we are taking the “high road” and not openly pushing back, we have allowed many things we know are not in our national interest to creep into our daily lives. By not pushing back we have allowed small segments of our society to drive the Country to behaviors we know intuitively are illogical, immoral, and not in our national interest.
We should not be surprised at weakness in our national leadership, or illogical diatribes from local residents who hold them in high esteem, after all we allow it to persist. Enough is enough, it is time to start pushing back!
