Your post is a beautiful thought but I sincerely doubt there is any hope of goodness in the Leftist Land of Mordour
“Anyhow, as the “age of Trump” comes upon us, are there wiser ways to use FR than to chew the fat on behalf of particular parochial views? “
Probably not. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.
I would like to see SunkenCiv restored.
He has contributed greatly to this forum.
It is hard to talk with those on the left. They don’t want to deal with facts. Like that the KKK was the child and enforcement wing of the Democrat party. That the Segregationists were all Democrats. That JFK cut taxes. And every time taxes are cut, tax revenues rise. That the sun causes global warming and global cooling.
Wiser way?
I’ve been here nearly 20 yrs, can’t think of a single tech upgrade yet...
So, no, you hit your dial up, wait for the screeching to stop...
I don’t want to get along with the left. They’re evil and want to destroy our country and our society. They cannot be converted. They are hopelessly brainwashed. They can only be defeated and stripped of all power for all time.
What, specifically, to they consider desiderata that are correct? To what extent are they even honest abut such alleged desiderata.
For example, the left blathers endlessly about gun control for the purpose of 'safety', or 'public health', or 'crime control'. In fact, they're lying through their teeth on the topic. For them, it's not about safety, or health, or ending crime. It's about control.
For another example, the left blathers endlessly about helping the poor. OK ... we as individuals have a Christian duty to do that. For the left, though, it's not about helping the poor (which their government programs do very badly at best), it's about enriching themselves, building a government leviathan, and controlling the lives of productive people.
There may be common ground with the low information voters. We can show people who want safety and less crime that gun control doesn't provide what they're looking for. We can show people who want to help the poor that government does a catastrophically bad job of it. We can show them that as Christians and Constitutionalists, we have ideas more likely to produce the desired result.
But with the leadership, we have no common ground. They're Alinskyites. The issue is never the issue. The issue is always the revolution.
There are three general groups of leftists:
1.) Those that are ignorant/ill informed/don’t care, but all in all are decent people who form their opinions by emotion. We can talk to some of these, the others may be unreachable or uninterested. They still vote, sometimes. These are the nice, useful idiots who are sometimes surprised to find they support something that is bad, if ever scratch the surface.
2.) The True Believers. The dogmatic, spittle-lipped, fever-faced cannon fodder of the left. These people are the ones that swallow all the dogma of the left, hook, line, and sinker, and will do anything to advance it. They are Code Pink and MoveOn.org types. These are the people who cried when Hillary lost, and threatened to leave the country. These people are akin to the people in the Gulags who cried when Stalin, the man who put them there, died. I think many of these people are dangerous and unstable. I avoid these people like the plague, they not only cannot be reasoned with, they cannot be talked to. I met many of them at protests in DC. These are the people (when the last third of liberals described below come to power) who scream as they are dragged away “Wait! What are you doing this for? I am on your side!”
3.) The last third are evil. People like Clinton, Alinsky. Obama, Ayers, Cloward, and Piven. These people only want power and money, and they believe tyranny is the way to get both. They don’t believe for a second all the crap they preach. They only understand power, and have no moral framework to inhibit them in any way. These people are to be fought, not reasoned with.
It is true that a blind squirrel occasionally finds a nut. But the one-way ratchet that is liberalism has only one ending point when the ratchet has no more cable to pull in and no more teeth to grab. That ending point is tyranny and misery.
Conservatives have to practice introspection and reflection on the things we believe in, because we are hit with a flood of counter principles each day from the media, Hollywood, liberal politicians and people from all three groups described above. They are validated by each other and the flood of media. We have to think about these principles every day, turn them over and examine them to ensure we are viewing them correctly.
Liberals don’t have to do that. And they don’t. IMO, we can only talk to a portion of the people in group #1 above. The others are unreachable.
Go placidly amid the noise and the haste, and remember what peace there may be in silence. As far as possible, without surrender, be on good terms with all persons.
Speak your truth quietly and clearly; and listen to others, even to the dull and the ignorant; they too have their story.
Avoid loud and aggressive persons; they are vexatious to the spirit. If you compare yourself with others, you may become vain or bitter, for always there will be greater and lesser persons than yourself.
Enjoy your achievements as well as your plans. Keep interested in your own career, however humble; it is a real possession in the changing fortunes of time.
Exercise caution in your business affairs, for the world is full of trickery. But let this not blind you to what virtue there is; many persons strive for high ideals, and everywhere life is full of heroism.
Be yourself. Especially, do not feign affection. Neither be cynical about love; for in the face of all aridity and disenchantment it is as perennial as the grass.
Take kindly the counsel of the years, gracefully surrendering the things of youth.
Nurture strength of spirit to shield you in sudden misfortune. But do not distress yourself with dark imaginings. Many fears are born of fatigue and loneliness.
Beyond a wholesome discipline, be gentle with yourself. You are a child of the universe no less than the trees and the stars; you have a right to be here.
And whether or not it is clear to you, no doubt the universe is unfolding as it should. Therefore be at peace with God, whatever you conceive Him to be.
And whatever your labors and aspirations, in the noisy confusion of life, keep peace in your soul. With all its sham, drudgery and broken dreams, it is still a beautiful world. Be cheerful. Strive to be happy.
All the leftist I personally know are barking moonbat insane: there IS no possibility of rationally engaging these people. Period.
My strategy is to stay as far the F possible away from these EXTREMELY unpleasant oh-so-tolerant-as-long-as-you-think-exactly-the-same-way-as-do people. So far, my strategy has worked extremely well: I’m a MUCH happier and healthier person than otherwise.
I learned a LONG time ago that my job is not to fix the stupid and deliberately ignorant, particularly since there are so many of them.
We debate all the angles here, and the talkers present the refined arguments over the radio.
-PJ
Well anyhow, this is sort of a mini-opus.
Not the opus that says “I quit this place” — but the opus that says “I intend, so help me God, to quit this attitude.”
The Left has been such a colossal nuisance for the last however many years, that the devil has managed to use it to distract us into painting ourselves into our own little corner.
When did we even see a president so bent on defending what he honestly thought was true? While at the same time willing to negotiate about what is wise? We’ve had so much politeness and parochialism that it’s sickening.
Can we doubt that God set this up? Politics sure as hell (literally speaking) didn’t! This is not Donald Trump’s first try. Many factors added up in the zeitgeist to “make way for the way of the Lord” if I may wax biblical about it.
Generally, in history, when people are suffering, if it isn’t for the sake of helping other sinners on the way to God, then it’s because they got stupid towards God. Refusing His blessings, the only thing left was the devil’s curses.
Let’s, of course, not worship Donald Trump. The God who set Donald in place is worthy of the worship. But let’s try not to fight him when he does things that are biblically correct, either. And no, the bible didn’t stop at the Old Testament.
“I got asked back whether I’d ever met any of these folks.”
A typical libidiot response to bail out of the conversation. Their knowledge is a mile wide and an angstrom deep.
Don’t sweat it - be prepared for anything in the next 4 years.
All this Inauguration material is making me remember Bush 2001. Compared to Trump’s transition and agenda - LAME.
I remember sitting next to a cute little new grad Bush intern girl on a plane right before the 2001 Inaguration - she was reading Hume. All I could advise her with (me being from the era watching Reagan) was “cut those middle class taxes”. Now, there are about 20 things Trump has promised that are critical, and do-able.
Not to mention the fake news that’s been exposed. Hold on to your seats.
I joined FR about the same time as you after lurking for over a year. I’ve learned a thing or two here, that’s for sure; one of the biggest is that smartass and clever commentary is as educational in its own way as well thought out discourse.
I’ve also learned that it is truly impossible to have a cogent discussion with a real liberal. It’s like trying to reason with a narcissist. They will deflect, lie, threaten and cry. But when you look back on the conversation you realize it’s all crazy - making. That’s because they don’t speak for the truth of the matter. They speak to control. Fruitless.
Our only hope is to get to the do-gooder types, that really are good people, and speak some sense to them. That’s where I have found FR to excell—prepping me for those conversations.
I think FR is doing exactly what Jim wanted it to do.
2. There should be a daily posting of The FR Pressroom Report.
Free Republic is a wonderful think tank where chewing the fat on conservative and constitutional freedom makes everyone who comes here more capable of dealing with those who wish to remake our country into something else. It also does a great job of keeping up on the news and tracking what is relevant. How much each one of us uses that knowledge to promote what Free Republic stands for is up to each individual. I would say that I began lurking on Free Republic when Drudge outed Monica and this site has been a bastion of stability and with stood the test of time. It does not happen overnight, but just like Limbaugh was a beach head in talk radio, Free Republic was a beach head on the internet that has successfully seen many things it stands for overcome vast sums of money and power in this election if Trump will deliver on his promises.
Don’t go native on us.