A Fallen Comrade and the New Year

During this past year, the right-of-center blogging community lost one of it’s own.  Ken Minor blogged at One Conservative Estimate and the Conservative Hideout.  I didn’t know Mr. Minor very well, but I was an admirer of his work.  Mr. Minor’s last post was entitled “America is Dying! Won’t Someone Save Her?  Please!”.  Beyond the evocative title, Ken talked about feelings I think many conservatives share.  He was discussing Big Sis Janet Incompetano and the TSA’s deranged search procedures going on at our nation’s airports, but he could’ve been talking about the Obama regime in general. 

My government doesn’t currently think much of my rights. One might argue that this government is not really my government, not the one that bids loyalty to the Constitution of These United States. I propose that they are but a shadow of the real thing with intent and purpose to subordinate me to comply with their wishes. Not as long as I breathe. I am not alone in this nor do I see this deceptive ploy of “protecting me” as legitimate. Will it be legitimate when they employ these same rules on shoppers in a mall or those strolling down the streets? Is it such a far leap to go from groping granny in the airport to scanning children entering schools? Surely there is danger in the schools, and in the streets and everywhere. Will you think it okay when they call you from your home or job and ask you to comply with their harmless scans? What will you say when they determine that these scanners will make subways safer? Will you still see nothing wrong with their intentions?

This is the crux of the fight we on the Right face.

It’s long past time we confront an unpleasant fact.  The current President and his allies in the Democrat Party, Hollywood, the news media and academia are the united spear tip of the modern American Left.  More importantly, this liberal movement hates normal Americans.  Of course, conservatives and traditionalists are particularly despised because of their historic role as bulwarks against progressivism.  However, even rank-and-file Democrats are only barely tolerated.  Democrat Party policies–the legislative products of liberal intellectuals–have consigned vast swaths of their own party to dependence, poverty and ignorance.  One could say with some justification that the American Left has little use for their own partisan troops except for their utility in elections and as rabble-rousers.

The United States Constitution, properly understood as a document that empowers individuals and limits government power, is anathema to everything today’s Left desires.  Progressives cannot stand anything that curtails the ability of Washington DC to exercise authority in damn near any way it wants.  Is it any wonder why, as Mr. Minor says, the Obamatons think so little of his–and our–rights?  If you believe that the Constitution is nothing more than an old meaningless scrap of parchment, it’s just a matter of time before you start chafing against the individual in general, and believers in the Constitution in particular.

That’s the enemy we are fighting against.  It’s a foe not bound by the Constitution or tradition.  It’s an opponent that lies about the true goals of their policies.  It’s an adversary that will irreparably alter the United States of America in horrifying ways if we let them. 

But…we can beat them.  In fact, we have the power to whip them.  We can and we will.

In order for us to prevail, it’s going to take the Right to take several important steps.  We must remain vigilant in defending our rights.  We have to make intelligent arguments in defense of constitutionally based liberty.  We should continue to be non-violent, even in the face of progressive rent-a-mobs and leftist thuggery.  We cannot be  tempted by temporary partisan victories to sacrifice our intellectual honesty, while at the same time we have to recognize political realities on the ground.  We should do everything we can to avoid distractions that the Left will inevitably throw in front of us.  We have to reach out to those disconnected Americans who do not understand the issues and make our positions clear to them. 

We should be of good cheer, never forgetting our sense of humor in the midst of our missions.  The happy warrior is far more appealing–and far more enjoyable from a personal standpoint–than the dour pessimist.  We will suffer defeats in the coming months, but we should endure them with a grin and with the knowledge that the Right will prevail.  This political stuff is fun as hell.  It’s fun to think about, it’s fun to write about and it’s fun to discuss with friend and foe alike.  We conservatives should let the Left have a hammerlock monopoly on sour-puss frowning, snarling anger and unbridled hate.

Most of all, we must be prepared to debate and debate often within the broad right-of-center coalition.  Traditional libertarians, social conservatives, fiscal cons, deficit hawks, neocons, civil libertarians, paleocons and even compassionate conservatives all should be allowed a place to discuss the important matters of the day.  It is only by hashing out our differences together that we will best be able to fight the progressive sphere with the intellectual firepower necessary to win.

Ken Minor’s last post cried out for the Right to preserve the America that we know and cherish.  His concerns were well-founded.  America is in great peril.  The United States is in danger from a threat from within it’s borders.

However, it is within our power to retake the wheel of government and turn away from socialism.  This next year, with a congressional bulwark against Obama put into place, will be critical to our future success.  With that in mind, we should start 2011 with the goal of nothing less than the breaking of the Left’s insidious agenda and the return of constitutional governance to America.

My fellow patriots, let us begin.