We like to think that words have meanings that transcend ephemeral narratives. Discourse requires us to agree on common definitions for the words we use. Imagine someone from Texas debating what to have for barbecue with someone from Minnesota — they will likely have very different ideas of what barbecue means and will have trouble agreeing to anything.
This is perhaps the greatest weakness of conservatives today. We believe that certain words and phrases, such as democracy, freedom, patriotism, the American Dream, and the plain text of the Constitution, still mean what they did when our great-grandparents grew up. Yet that is clearly not the case.
The left has successfully infiltrated our civic institutions and redefined the words we use to define our society. One of the godfathers of right-wing Twitter in the old days was a fellow named David Burge, aka iowahawkblog, who poked fun at leftist pretensions. In 2015 he made what might be his most insightful observation:
The modern left rarely — if ever — creates their own institutions. Instead, they took over the traditional structures of American society and reoriented them toward their own purposes. This happened slowly enough so as to be mostly unnoticed by American conservatives, whose mental images of these institutions remain what they were before that takeover.
Consider the field of journalism. Forty years ago, most Americans had a generally favorable impression of the press. We saw them as straight-shooters, men like Edward R. Murrow and Walter Cronkite bringing us the news of the day without bias or ulterior motives. We did not realize how the field had already been infiltrated by left wing activists who sought a role in shaping events rather than simply reporting them. By the 1990s, many had started to see the bias in the system (I am old enough to remember bumper stickers saying Don’t trust the liberal media!) and by the Trump era that perception was confirmed.
Consider elite universities. Once upon a time the mention of Harvard, Princeton, or Yale would conjure images of clean cut young men and beautiful young women, the best and the brightest of America. Out of these schools would come our future presidents and CEOs, the engineers who would power the future, and the authors who would write our stories.
Today, the buildings and names remain the same, but the institutions themselves are turning out graduates who hate everything America once stood for and whose mission is to tear it all down. The ongoing scandal of Harvard’s affirmative action president Claudine Gay not only excusing genocidal rhetoric against Jews but having been shown to have plagiarized her already scant output of published works is a disheartening example of the fall of a once-great institution. As Burge explained, we still instinctively respect the name Harvard even though it has been completely perverted from its original intentions.
Even institutions that remain respected on the right such as churches and law enforcement are being converged by leftist ideology as well, but that’s a discussion for another time. Perhaps the most insidious example, however, is the way in which the word democracy has been redefined under our very noses.
I have often pointed out that the United States was never a democracy, rather our system of government is a constitutional representative republic. Democracy means absolute rule by a majority, whereas our system involves representatives who make laws on our behalf and it protects the minority with a strong Constitution. However, Americans have long used the term democracy as shorthand for this system where the people are still theoretically sovereign. The final volume of Winston Churchill’s A History of the English-Speaking Peoples was called The Great Democracies, referring to the United Kingdom, United States, Australia, and Canada.
Today, that word has been twisted beyond all recognition. When leftist politicians or the corporate media use the term democracy, they do not mean the historical United States, but the coalition of left-wing groups whose only common ground is opposition to the historical United States.
You might think it makes zero sense that self-proclaimed defenders of democracy would do things that are obviously anti-democratic like attempting to imprison the likely Republican nominee for president or remove him from the ballot. Simply calling this hypocrisy reveals a misunderstanding of our current situation. When Joe Biden says that Donald Trump and MAGA conservatives are attacking “our democracy” it has nothing to do with the American system of government, rather he is signaling to his side that you and I are their enemies.
Replace the word “democracy” with “our regime” or “the revolution” and it makes a lot more sense. “We must imprison the leader of the opposition to protect our revolution.”
One of the people who instigated the Colorado Supreme Court decision to strip Trump from that state’s ballot gloated on Twitter, calling it a victory for democracy:
Raw Egg Nationalist, an anonymous Twitter poster who promotes healthy living and conservative principles, explained it well:
I hate to use the term “floating signifier”, but that’s all that word “democracy” now represents. “Democracy” means whatever the regime wants it to mean, and it refers to whatever the regime wants it to refer to, including deliberately subverting a popular election.
The lesson for you and me is to stop marching to the left’s tune. Don’t be like longtime conservative pundit Erick Erickson who retreated to the stale trope of saying that the left will someday regret this perversion of our system:
Once again, Raw Egg Nationalist called it what it is:
“Once you’ve lined us all up against a wall and shot us, we’re going to line YOU up against a wall and shoot you.” This is the pure distilled essence of conservatism: a doctrine of complete and utter failure. The sooner we dispense with conservatism, the better.
Conservatives must reckon with the rapid changes that have been happening in our society for decades now and let go of the hope that things are magically going to go back to normal. Our country is in the midst of a transformation not unlike France in 1789, Russia in 1917, or China in 1949. There is no going back to the halcyon days of 1955, 1984, or even 2014. The only way out is through, and the only way conservatives can succeed in restoring traditional principles and the rule of law is to recognize things for what they are, starting with understanding the way in which the left has completely perverted our institutions.
The way forward is to elect strong conservative legislators and state officials who will not allow the federal government or woke agencies to dictate our lives. Attorney General Raúl Labrador has been doing a great job this year fighting back against federal overreach in Idaho as well as standing against other states such as California and Illinois that are restricting the rights of their citizens. We need the Legislature to cut the puppet strings that come with federal money and a governor who will use his authority and influence to stand up for traditional values rather than simply acting as a tool for big business special interests.
Most of all, you and I need to recognize what time it is. The hour is far too late to simply call out leftist hypocrisy regarding our sacred democracy. They have declared war on us, so we must act accordingly. That doesn’t mean taking to the streets. It means fighting fire with fire, using every tool at our disposal to make sure we survive as a people and as a nation. They took Trump off the ballot? Take Biden off too. They indicted peaceful people who were at the Capitol on January 6th? Indict them for all the illegal things they have done. They made sanctuary cities for illegal migrants? Make our cities sanctuaries for life, for the 2nd amendment, and for freedom of speech and association.
If this path leads to some sort of secession or national divorce, then so be it. Our country is like a house that has become so rotten and broken that a simple patch job is no longer sufficient to maintain its safety and integrity. The purpose of the American government, as laid out in the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution, was always to protect the life, liberty, and property of the American people. Now that it’s clear it has failed in that task, we must be open to new ideas. We cannot allow nostalgia for what was keep us from doing what is necessary to ensure our children and grandchildren live in the freedom we have long taken for granted.
