"It stands athwart history, yelling Stop, at a time when no one is inclined to do so..." - William F. Buckley, National Review
I've been thinking about William F. Buckley a lot lately. The late, great conservative thinker has always been an inspiration to me, but the quote above never really meant as much to me...until now. I am born of a generation of conservatives that has never been in this place before. I was born in the early '80s. My first political memories are of the comfort Reagan provided after the Challenger disaster and the great, peaceful triumph over Communism and the Soviet Union- made possible by Reagan- signified by the fall of the Berlin Wall.
For the vast majority of my lifetime, Conservatives have mattered. Conservative Republicans have had the political standing to affect policy, whether holding the White House or meaningful numbers in the House and Senate. Then the elections of 2006 and 2008 happened. Now I think I know how Buckley must have felt in 1955, his ideas not only shunned, but mostly dismissed as irrelevant by the political establishment and the media. Conservatives find ourselves one Minnesota Senate recount away from facing total irrelevance in the two governing branches of the federal government and I am scared for all of us.
Above all, I believe in the American Dream. I believe that this country was built on the premise that every citizen has a God-given right to pursue their dreams and succeed or fail in that pursuit. There are no guarantees in life beyond the fact that this country is open to giving everyone a shot- whether you start life in a privileged family, as the product of a single parent home, or as an immigrant looking for a new life. There is no guarantee of success, only opportunity. However, I am convinced that this great experiment is beginning to be systematically taken apart by the government we recently elected. It is clear to me that the Democrats' first principle is to use government as a means to punish those who have found the American Dream in the name of equality for those who have not succeeded in finding it.
The most galling part of this development to me is the length to which the Democrats and their accomplices in the media went to mask their agenda during the campaign. They sold the American public- weary from the fear of terrorism, war, natural disaster, and a bursting economic bubble- on the notion of generic "Change," personified by then-candidate Barack Obama. They never articulated that "change" meant the federal government deciding the proper level of compensation for employees of private corporations. They never said that "change" meant that health care decisions would be taken from families and doctors and given to bureaucrats. They never told the American people that "change" meant underpriviledged children given the chance for a real education in private and charter schools would be ripped away from sound learning environments and thrown back into failing public schools to mollify teachers unions. They never said that they would trample on the right of workers to decide whether to form a union in the American way- by private ballot- in favor of intimidation and coercion. This, it seems, is the "change" that is coming. I believe that a majority of Americans reject this vision.
This tiny corner of the internet is my place to oppose this revision of our social construct. I don't really care if anyone actually reads it, but it gives me a place to vent my frustrations with the direction in which this country, this idea I love is careening. Perhaps it will help me stop yelling at the TV when news and opinion shows are on. That would at least make my friends happy.
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