How difficult is it to find another pic of Ronald Reagan for the masthead? Don't bother. That's rhetorical.
The forum rules/standards are setup for the benefit of several hardcore Trump haters. And you know it, @Cyber Liberty
I'm not going to remain silent and cowed into silence. I'm already a 75%/25% lurker/poster, but I will speak up whenever the likes of @Mesaclone ...who is a forum treasure is 'beaten' into submission by the so-called pure conservatives here.
I liked Reagan. For the most part, he did a good job, and did it with class.
Unfortunately, after Reagan, the GOP has changed. It has spent years being shepherded by Globalists, not the more nationalistic breed of American we need to truly look out for THIS country's interests, today.
Why?
Because Globalism, as a logistical thing, cannot ever serve the Rights and Liberty of the People. The consolidation of power needed to effectively have globalism as anything functional is better served by Marxist models, where in the end, there is an "elite" who hold dominion over all others and will brook no dissent, not even the worship of a God, whom they see as interfering in their diktats.
The Globalists in the GOP have allowed it, enabled it,
encouraged policy which embraces Globalism/socialism, if not propelled it there, or simply stood aside while the Democrat/Marxists have done the job to the cheering and applause of their ignorant pawns. The minority who have not may get some air time and be held out as the face of the Party in election years, but there is no reason otherwise that slide continues than the defection and abandonment of national interests for global ones, no matter what cloak of prosperity for the few who benefit is wrapped around the loss of jobs, essential manufacturing, and the results of American research and development surrendered to foreign manufacturers for increased profit margins, effectively giving away a technological edge in not just trade, but in matters of National Security as well.
We, on the real Right, all want basically the same things, we don't agree on who is the "right" person to help us get them, the methods used to get them, or sometimes, even how much of those things we need to get.
Some would be happy with what used to be called a "centrist" position, but with the changes to the playing field, that's now considered in the MSM to be the "extreme right".
Some of us are farther right than that, some considerably so, combining all the fis-so-neo-crunchy-crusty-paleo- hyphenations in proper proportion into a position we consider to be truly conservative, one which embraces original intent with a few fine tuned changes, but which eschews the consolidation of power and which enforces the rights and Liberty of the individual and their respective States, placing the majority of power at the local and State level.
The current iteration of the GOP is far to the left of that, and Original Intent isn't even on the page, at least with 5 of the 9 at SCOTUS.
So we're going to have differences of opinion, and what is truly "Conservative" is incessantly up for debate.
But right now, despite our differences, we'd better take one thing from Reagan.
We'd better quit kicking people out of the tent, and whether we like, agree with, or even have a hard time tolerating each other, we'd better get our shit together, square the ranks, and face the real enemy in the current Communist (there really is no other word for it--they are avowed Marxists) onslaught we are facing.
This is a war, for our culture, our art, our literature, our history (warts and all), for the soul of America, and I'd be happy to personally bitch slap anyone, ANYONE who would rather squabble than face that fact. Get your head right.
We have a rare gift, one bestowed upon us by the Grace of Almighty God, and a handful of men who pledged their Lives, their fortunes and their Sacred Honor to make it come about. Even after a protracted conflict, in which many battles, lives, and fortunes were lost, the War was won, and we had men intelligent enough to propose a form of government which permitted those individual nations to work in concert, and who, even more so, could recognize when those Articles of Confederation were insufficient for a lasting future, and to abandon those and devise a form of Government like no other on this planet, one which endured so long as we abide by it's basic principles.
That's where principles come in.
You cannot discard them without discarding the Republic that is built upon them, any more than you can jerk stones from a foundation and expect an edifice to stand. All the pragmatism in the universe will not fill that void, and sooner or later, the structure will crumble and collapse. This is something the Marxists know, and they have been chipping away at those foundations since before my lifetime, under a half dozen names, but all preaching the same god, the State.
You fight a war with the army you have, and the war of ideas is how we got to lawless zones in cities burning, occupied by avowed Marxists, their fellow travelers, and ignorant tools.
Our Army starts with the CinC, and goes right down to the lowliest keyboard commando, fought on every front from Service in the Armed Forces, to standing in front of a liquor store with a rifle during a riot, to posts on twitter.
If NOW, of all times you long for the old days of whatever you consider "purity", then stand alone in the square and fight.
Watch impotently as the icons of the past are replaced with the SJW marxist drivel of the future and enjoy your chains.
Damnit, the one consistent and ever-present tactic of the Communists is to divide their enemies and get them fighting amongst themselves. THEY don't do that
until it is time to divide the spoils. They might martyr a couple to further the cause, but until the war is won, they'll be together. The farther I look back, the more I see of this divisive influence on the Conservative, the
AMERICAN side of the equation, and the more evident in history is the obvious divisions placed in the Right by the Left, the Alinsky tactics used againstJoe McCarthy, the John Birch Society (Anticommunist, not antisemitic), Goldwater, and every Conservative who wants or has wanted a restoration of the Republic.
Wake up and see you have more allies than you would ever guess,
if you have the sense to embrace them, and that goes for all of us, even as we face a much more dangerous enemy than any here.
