It’s a given that the communism of the “left” poses a threat to our individual liberty and the Constitution. But for many on the right still voting faithfully along party lines, the fact that “their side” has also abandoned the cause of liberty has been a bitter, if not impossible, pill to swallow.
They just can’t bring themselves to face the truth of it. Denial is one thing, but there’s also a growing influx of “conservatives” who don’t have any problem with collectivism whatsoever as long as it’s a flag-waving Nationalist member of the “right”.
Communism is already in the DNA of the left, but the more nationalism is accepted by the right, the more American politics as a whole is reduced to the communist versus fascist paradigm we see in Europe, where only one or the other can prevail while liberty is expunged. And the more populist this collectivism becomes, the more everything everywhere has to be reformed and/or redefined.
Nothing; not the Constitution, our right to life, our right to arms, or even liberty itself can remain the same. Once we begin to understand this fact within the context of collectivism, we can finally get it through our thick skulls they cannot exist! On the flip side, our perceptions of equity, healthcare, central planning, social and criminal justice etc. have to undergo the same collective recalibration. For it to be otherwise would be to reject collectivism outright!
But are there any today ready to do that?
Though most of us are far too busy to be paying attention to the minutia of all the “evolutionary” social statics and dynamics at work, those in politics live and die by them. Wherever the prevailing political winds blow, so goes the politician, that is, if they want to keep their job. So regardless of how we define liberty, and despite all the lip service still given to “preserving” it, most everyone in politics (politician and pundit alike) have already made the transition because there simply just isn’t any power (or ratings) left to be had by defending what’s essentially become the “dead dogma” of liberty.
Even though we’re still hearing promises to preserve liberty and our Republic, they’re promises being made from a collectivist/power point of view. Therein lies the moral disconnect between defenders of liberty and defenders of politics — they’re speaking two different, diabolically opposed languages! Defenders of politics aren’t “lying” or “going back on their word” when they throw liberty under the bus; they’re doing exactly what they told us they would do. Preserving individual rights, liberty, and our Constitution in the context of collectivism is to kill them in the name of it. We’re being duped by doublespeak.
Another consideration is the across-the-board success of our progressive education system in collectivizing future generations. From a political power perspective, that alone leaves little on the horizon but an acceleration of our ongoing transformation.
Meanwhile, “conservatives” are radicalizing themselves with the prison yard extortion tactics of Alinsky’s confrontational politics. While so-called conservative schools have been educating students on these tactics, identitarian/white nationalists have been infiltrating them to the same confrontational end . . . “right wing” political power. And why not? Neither nationalism nor today’s populist conservatism are beholden to the moral check of liberty over the “ends justifies the means” anti-morality of progressive collectivism.
From a liberty perspective, such tactics are futile; they’re meant only for “have-nots” to take power from the “haves.” All you have to do is look at Europe to see where that ends; a perpetual state of confrontational political upheaval, a collectivist left and right taking turns seizing power from each other, and no peace, power, or liberty for the people.
The only way for the people to actually have and keep “real power” is with the freedom of individual rights and liberty. Our Founders understood that; most of today’s “conservatives” not so much. They agree in principle as they faithfully vote Republican for political power and the populist continuation of liberty’s deconstruction.
Why keep fighting for our guns if all we’re going to do is keep shooting ourselves in the foot?
Joe Marshall was born and raised in the Finger Lakes Region of Upstate NY. He is a married father of two grown sons, an outdoorsman, a landscape contractor, a former stock car owner and driver, a certified 4H firearms instructor, and a retired New York State corrections officer.
Joe is the author of the book, Last Call for Liberty
