Part 1 - PC BS DOA Today
By Tim A. Michael
"...and the government shall be upon his shoulder..." Isaiah 9:6
As a voter that didn’t really have a “home” this general election cycle, I
believe I have a unique perspective regarding the process and eventual outcome of it. That said, I’ll just say this
“Welp - I didn't see that coming!”
I have often said that I don't mind admitting when I miss the mark on
something. When I make a public pronouncement that proves to be erroneous, I am
happy to utter those 3 words that haunts most of humanity: "I was wrong!" And
boy was I. Of course judging from the melting snowflakes in the streets of many
of our nation's cities, I was not alone on this score.
As many of you know, I was not a Trump supporter and engaged heavily in
speculative criticism of him, the VAST majority of which I believe was
warranted. The jury is still out on some of those indictments. Here's the rub
for me, and so many of my truly conservative compatriots, if The Donald had
struck a nicer tone and/or a more conciliatory persona during the primaries,
it's likely the Republican Party would have nominated a different
candidate...and LOST the election. I'm choking on those words as I write them.
He tapped into the frustration and anger of the disenfranchised very
effectively, and leveraged it for the win.
I think we can safely say that the PC BS is now DOA (although there are
still plenty of folks throwing the paddles to it – CLEAR!). I
underestimated the impact of just how many people were fed up with political
correctness. I bought into the lie that the "new normal" had become "the new
normal" for a majority of Americans (which according to the popular vote may
still be the case). I thought the middle-class middle-Americans had accepted
"white privilege" as a fact rather than the sham shaming tool used to
perversely pontificate, reversely discriminate, harshly pre-judge. I really
had little faith left in my fellow Americans. Well newsflash, there's still half
of the country that embraces the red, white, and blue to fly it proudly, and
honor it loudly, and unapologetically.
I underestimated many things in this election, but the one that leaves me
scarred the most is my not believing my own truth: A lot of people will forgive
the short comings of someone when they believe them to be authentic.
Being "real" has been one of my strongest bits of advice to my kids.
Embrace the "real" and shun the "fake." I think I struggled with The Donald's
flip-flops so much that I wasn't willing to give him the benefit of the doubt on
being "real." In fact, I was so sure that he wasn't, that, rather than trust
people like Ben Carson, Pastor Robert Jeffress, and Mike Huckabee, it diminished
my faith in them instead.
How could they trust this
“Johnny-come-lately” "conservative"? How could he be trusted when he spent so much
of the primary executing a scorched earth policy toward his own party and
promoting big government solutions to healthcare including “single-payer”
socialism? How could I trust him. I couldn’t. I didn’t. I still don’t
fully.
But, when Trump was getting “real” in his own way, he was kicking over the sacred cows of political correctness and shocking the elite left with such
outrageous comments like "We're going to make America great again," and
"We're going to build that wall!" They simply dismissed him as a fool and
completely underestimated how much he resonated with so many Americans.
I
vacillated between agreeing with them at times, and cheering
him on at times. I was completely conflicted. Who among the truly
adult population doesn't scoff at the terms "white guilt/privilege" and the
concepts of "safe spaces"? Yet who among the adult population doesn’t also
expect their Presidents to be, well, “adults”? I’ve spent the last 8 years
decrying President Obama’s childish behavior, and so did so many Trump
supporters. Suddenly they were willing to overlook it in their candidate?
Hypocrisy much? Of course.
The most disappointing thing to me about the entire process was the vitriol
leveled at long-time conservatives and their principles/values. The rift wouldn’t have been so wide (and election so close) if they had
simply acknowledged their brethren’s concerns rather than scoffing at them. To do so would entail them acknowledging their own duplicity. they chose to attack others instead.
Calling Ted Cruz an “insider” was an egregious mischaracterization when he
has spent his entire Senatorial career fighting both the Democrats and the Republican
establishment. Moving deeper into the abyss, they just
started calling him “lying Ted.” He deserved better. He still does. He actually
still deserves an apology. Trump also accused Ben Carson of being a
“pathological liar” but he put it even less delicately, and I quote:
“Now. If
you’re pathological, there’s no cure for that, folks. Okay, there’s no cure for
that. And I did one of the shows today. And I don’t want to say what I said. But
I’ll tell you anyway. I said that if you’re a child molester, a sick
puppy, you’re a child molester, there’s no cure for that. There’s only one
cure—we don’t want to talk about that cure. That’s the ultimate cure. Well,
there’s two, there’s death, and the other thing.”
Donald and “The Trumpettes” trashed everything in their path. The Trump
Train had no crossing arms or warning lights, just loud horns and
full-steam-ahead. They left bodies, reputations, institutions, and decorum
strewn in their wake. They trashed some good people along the way. For me, that
was unconscionable.
Ted Cruz was my guy, and he and his wife were treated
unfairly. I still feel this way. The dismissive way that Trump and his
supporters treated people, and traditional conservative policies was for many
unforgiveable. For others, they were willing to set that aside without a second
thought. To me, it smelled of compromise and seemed, well, unseemly. Ethics
expendable. Morals mortgage-able. Principles passé. We’ve seen it all before in
the nominations of RINOs. Vomit. Proverbs
26:11 As a dog returns to
his own vomit, so a fool
repeats his folly.
Yet, while many in the party were sounding the alarm, the people that he
said would support him if he shot someone on 5th avenue were all out grabbing
shovels to help hide the body(ies). As the primary moved into it’s later stages,
it seemed many of his supporters would take the gun from him and shoot his
opponents themselves. The Trump trained rivaled Obama’s messianic movement which
was another red flag to give the principled conservatives pause. Again, they
were/are ready to accept government-run single-payer healthcare system for
control of the executive branch and the SCOTUS. Many of us were ready to let the
whole thing burn to the ground in hopes a more perfect Union could rise from the ashes.
The Donald went on to win an amazing victory. He did so with a LOT of
people holding their nose while they cast their ballot. I know a significant
number of “Cruz Missiles” that were launched AGAINST Hillary. I know a bunch of
evangelicals personally that voted FOR Mike Pence. I too believe him to be an
honorable man.
Additionally, don’t underestimate the number of people who were
completely outraged that James Comey announced the Sunday before election day
that he would not pursue the investigation against Hillary. This enraged a large
percentage of conservatives and seems to have pushed many to the polls that
Tuesday. Exit polls suggest a lot of republicans “came home” despite their
disdain for Trump.
What I’ve seen from him since his election, from his gracious victory
speech to his deliberative and measured way of assembling his cabinet, gives me
hope. I’ve heard the stories of people who were close to newly elected
presidents saying they could see the mantle descend upon them, even changing
their countenance. The petulant childish Donald of the primary seems like a
distant memory, at least for now. Even the vast majority of his most strident
supporters seem to be following his lead. Good. Both had a LOT of growing up to
do.
Smugness and petulance is the territory of liberals. We (conservatives) are
better than that, so let’s wipe that mud off our boots. We can re-litigate the
primary and it’s contentiousness if needed, but what one famous loser once said,
“what, at this point, difference does it really make?” At this point? – none.
Going forward, He will be highly scrutinized by partisans on both sides. Buckle
up, it’s likely to be a bumpy ride. And as a footnote to the #nevertrumpers –
never say “never!”
How could Michael Moore have been so right and I have been so
wrong? Excuse me while I go lick that wound.
In Part II I’ll discuss the blind spots of the democrat left, some of my
less than congenial responses to them, and what they may need to consider going
“forward.”