Let me state up front who I am. I am a politically conservative Roman Catholic of a certain age. I strenuously opposed the nomination of Donald Trump, and did not vote for him in the general election. For technical and logistical reasons I do not call myself a “Never Trumper.” I have not become a fan of Donald Trump, though I support and appreciate many of his policy goals and initiatives, none the least of which are his judicial selections – but more on that in a second. A lifelong Republican, I changed to Independent days before the 2016 Republican convention. This November I intended to vote only to reelect my governor, and then leave all other offices on the ballot blank.
After what I witnessed yesterday, and have been witnessing for the past two weeks, I will be voting straight line Republican in November. Moreover, I will not be sitting on the sidelines anymore as the left – and yes, the American left does merit most of the blame for the circus our republic has become – becomes committed to acquiring power at all costs.
This does not mean I have become a “Trumpist,” nor will I become (I hope) a blind Republican partisan stooge. It does mean that recent events have, for lack of a better term, “radicalized” me. No, you don’t have to alert homeland security. The greatest extent my radicalization will take is writing angry screeds on the internet. But make no mistake: I am angry, or at least I am angry about what our politics have become.
Go here to look at the new blog, Letters From Cato. I should note that I am not associated with that blog. It has long been said, and said truly, that most conservatives view liberals as mistaken and most liberals view conservatives as evil. After the orchestrated campaign to destroy the life of Brett Kavanaugh, I still regard most liberals as merely mistaken, but I must say that the percentage of them I regard as evil rises every day. The feckless Left has no idea of the price they will pay if they convert most conservatives into an understanding of the depth of hatred that the activist Left has for them. You attack people long enough and sooner or later they will suspect that you are in earnest and respond accordingly. Then it is a small step to “Hail the big war that makes ambition virtue”. Our civil life is having an ominous pre-civil-war feel to it. May God and the better angels of our nature rescue us from this waking nightmare.
What is it that Winston Churchill said? “If you’re not a liberal when you’re young, you have no heart; if you’re not a conservative when you’re old, you have no brain.” Or something to that effect.
And of course “liberal” now means something quite different from what “liberal” meant 150 years ago.
Classical liberalism of the 19th century variety is largely congruent with contemporary American conservatism. What we call liberalism today is an increasingly authoritarian leftism that has little in common with classical liberalism.
Ascribed incorrectly Bob. It is amazing the life that some quotes have and the number of people they are attributed to. It does sound like the type of quip Churchill was fond of passing out in repartee.
https://quoteinvestigator.com/2014/02/24/heart-head/
Dang it, Bob, now you have me reconsidering that dang line; I was handed it in a modern (well, late 60s liberal) context, but it actually works pretty well for more of the “libertarian-no-not-libertine-yes-I-care-about-something-besides-pot-and-sex” type liberal, where the beautiful theory works much, much better if you are in good health and aren’t really thinking about the problem of children, or old age.
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Did Churchill switch sides at some point? He may have used the line, if so.
Churchill started out a member of the Conservative Party, switched to the Liberal Party, and then switched back to the Conservative Party. As Churchill said: “Anyone can rat, but it takes a certain amount of ingenuity to re-rat.”
Churchill’s views were remarkably stable, no matter if he called himself a Liberal or a Conservative.
Reminds me of:
https://youtu.be/1eq0X4qDlR0
“Our civil life is having an ominous pre-civil war feel”
So what practical steps, besides (of course) praying for said calamity to be averted, should we take if moving to a bunker in the desert and stocking up on ammo isn’t practical or even possible? Are there any places in the US that would be at least relatively safe for conservative/traditional leaning Catholics to live?
Beat them at the ballot box. As Lindsey Graham noted:
“Boy, you all want power. I hope you never get it.”
If the Left decides to take power by other means, they will have chosen poorly.
Since 1970, the Democrats have applauded the murder of 65 million babies. In 2012, a Catholic bishop left the Democrat party because they “booed God.” The trashing of of Brett Kavanaugh might wake up some people whose equanimity (like Bishop Tobin’s) has been unruffled by 65 million murders.