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Are You a Political Warrior?
When I first came to Ricochet, I was baffled at how people engaged so seriously in political discussion. I mean, it’s just politics—right?
As discussions got especially rabid and polarized over the entry of Donald Trump, I found myself feeling compelled to take sides. At the same time, I was trying to keep up with the destructive efforts of the Left and the media. What in the world was going on?
On several Ricochet posts I questioned people about their hostility within the entire political arena. They explained that it had always been a contentious environment. Cooperation only meant who caved in first, and the most often.
I began to realize that this was not just a hostile arena. Although many people refused to call the dynamics a “civil war,” the news reported the violence of antifa, and the hateful accusations and lies used to bludgeon people on the other side (of wherever their particular party sat). Sans weapons, it was definitely a war.
With that realization, I recognized how I had changed. Slowly but surely, I had become more and more frustrated with the unwillingness of people to look at all the facts, with their preference to create stories out of whole cloth. I’d never seen the media so vicious and obsessed, the commentary repeated over and over like the lines in a tragic play or horror movie. I began to write my own rants, rail against the distortions of facts and the damage that was happening to people, to their lives and their families. I had to let my own political warrior emerge.
What does that mean? I discovered a part of me that feels compelled to fight against injustice in the political arena. People who had once seemed over the top in their writing were suddenly my partners in the fight. I also found (at least in my own experience) that many people were focusing on the serious issues at hand: betrayals by our intelligence agencies, by the previous administration, by the media; a refusal to acknowledge any of the accomplishments of Donald Trump, or discounting their relevance to our country. I was angry. I felt betrayed. And I felt compelled, even obligated, to speak out against the lies and to encourage the Republicans to fight. Fight!
I don’t like to fight—at least not if I don’t have to fight. I’d rather talk things out, build relationships, find a way to work together. But I can’t even imagine trying to do that with people on the Left, not even my own friends.
Have I changed? If I’ve changed, is it permanent? I don’t feel more violent. I still seem to have my core that is settled, balanced, and thoughtful. But I’ve discovered a part of me that, when the situation calls for it, I will fight. Maybe my training in using a gun has contributed to my outlook. There is still a part of me that wants all the hatefulness, betrayals and deceptions to just go away, even though I know they won’t.
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Has the political environment changed you? Are you sitting on the sidelines, watching but trying to avoid the ugliness that permeates the current actions? Are you at the other extreme, fighting back or picking fights to call out injustice? Or are you somewhere in the middle, trying to find your own balance of listening and learning, as well as fighting for truth, integrity, fairness and the Constitution?
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I know my own limitations. I couldn’t be a member of the military; I don’t have the courage and constitution for it. I’d make a lousy politician; I’d be kicked out of most gatherings for misbehavior. But I can write; I can speak out; I can represent ideas that support our Constitution and condemn those who would destroy it. I am a political warrior.
What about you?
Published in Politics
I was not referring to you personally (I know you well enough to never even suspect you of such), but to the pervading mindset on the political Right.
This is nearer my point. How one affirms or disparages personalities seems to matter far more than issues at this point. But not only this – it seems rare to be able to debate something without someone trying to peg you down. “Oh, you’re a Libertarian, so you also believe X, Y, and Z, and I’ll now tune you out.” Nevermind that I’m adamantly not a Libertarian, and nevermind what my argument even may have been, the box (the “position”, the “rank”) I’m in matters more than my argument. Wrong box (wrong “position”, wrong “rank”, wrong personality affirmation) and whatever I may have to say is cast aside – I become a non-person.
If that’s what matters, then it’s a struggle at every level of society, but the political fight is not at all where it matters, nor where anything lasting will be done. Had an interesting talk with a high school senior this weekend about the state of affairs at her school, and by my read the real struggles need to be with parents, with schools, with school administrators, but the indoctrination is well advanced. Politics is downstream of culture (all forms), and few on our side are even bothering with that. If all your eggs are in the people up top, you’ve already surrendered.
We agree. That’s why I hold on to a smidgen of optimism (and have written about) charter schools such as Hillsdale’s. We are behind the eight ball, but I refuse to give up hope.
I can’t disagree with your comments about the nasty people out there. I just try to ignore them, because they make lots of noise but are often shallow and spiteful, and I believe a small minority on Ricochet. I hold on to the belief that most of the people I encounter on Ricochet are good people (like you) and I stop arguing with the fools.
I’m not a political warrior (although I am a Happy Warrior, which could really be considered Chesterton’s happy pessimist) because I’m not actively engaged in politics and the Republican Party is a disaster here in Colorado and I’ve get more important things to do with my time than to try to solve its problems. I’ve only ever been to one Republican primary caucus in Colorado. I’m just someone out here with an opinion and there are so many people on the internet who are wrong! ;-)
I agree with Skip, the culture war is where it’s at. I’ve tried to fight those battles within my own family and, in a more limited way, in my church. I do a fair amount of combat on my knees. Thomas a Kempis is my new hero. I lean heavily on St. Michael the Archangel to do the real fighting.
Uh . . . make mud pies? Jeez, I threw you a slow, hanging curve ball. You shoulda hit that one out of the park! Hehe . . .
Are you still mad for losing the colonies?
Just don’t ask him about TipSAT – that was a more immediate and painful loss.
After a bit of R n R on the sensors we still managed to get 7 operational years out of it even after landing on the soft squishy instrument part of the satellite. At least that was the lame rationale the S/C vendor tried to pass off, even as we noted that the instrument data is the whole point of going flying….
I had an interesting and informative career in local government. It was in California but did not really have anything to do with the national politics It was just local corruption that was small scale but interesting as an example of why people are corrupted by power.
I lived in a small city named Mission Viejo from 1972 to 2017. I practiced Surgery there until I retired. I had not been involved in local politics until I was asked if I would serve on the Planning Commission about 15 years ago. The reason I was asked was because a reform movement had come about due to suspicion about city council members’ self dealing. One reform member had been elected two years before. Now, after a nasty campaign by a local political “fixer,” who had spent a lot of money on a local election, another reformer had been elected.
The council was still 3 to 2 and the majority refused to speak to her or to vote to confirm her appointments to city commissions. I agreed to serve and, because I had operated on a member of the majority, she voted to confirm me. Thus, I was a member of the planning commission, an interesting and educational experience. I also got involved with the reform group in town. Two years later, the reform group managed to elect two more reform candidates.
Guess what happened. The new council members made new friends, one with a LA Times reporter, and things went back to self dealing. The reform group disbanded a year or two later and I later resigned from the planning commission. Three years ago, I moved to Arizona,.
(sigh)
I lived in So. California a good man years. My husband and I lived in El Toro, which became Lake Forest, and then San Clemente from 1990-2004. A beautiful area, but as questionable in its politics as any area of California. I’m glad we’re in FL, where the politics may not be a whole lot better, but I’m pleased with DeSantis so far. You made a good decision to ditch CA–what a disaster. Thanks, @michaelkennedy.
I’ve seen the same here. An idealistic friend of ours (our kids went to school with her kids) ran a hell for leather campaign just to get on the township committee. She was fired up with all the vim and vigor of the Tea Party. Once on the committee she discovered decades of self dealing, graft, petty theft, shady as hell land deals, and anything but the actual interests or desires of the township at heart. She managed to get a few other old committee ole’ boys booted off, and some necessary transparency forced down their gullets with sweet bright sunshine… until the local news lost interest. In frustration she did not run again.
Instead she ran for the seat vacated by Pat Tiberi (the very definition of “milquetoast” and unremarkable seat warmer for 2 decades) in a primary that gave her enemies the excuse they needed to slander her so badly she’ll never run again. She lost the primary by a squeaker to Mandel, who pulled out all the stops in the last days to drag her name through the mud, even as she was running a relentlessly optimistic campaign that wasn’t nearly so heavy on the personal. But Mandel’s slanders, fed by her old enemies, came out too soon before the primary for her to have any time to rebut. It was ghastly. In the election that followed, I damned near withheld my vote – Mandel infuriated so many Republicans here that while he won, it was by about 200 votes.
It was all so needless, and so vile.
I practiced at Mission Hospital and organized the Trauma Center in 1979. After I retired in 1993 (after back surgery), the hospital was sold to an order of nuns. They then hired inappropriate people to run it and I would not allow myself to be hospitalized there. The CEO was from Pepsico with no health care experience. He hired his brother-in-law, a chiropractor, as Director of Surgery. The Joint Commission shut down the operating suite a couple of years ago for infections and poor sanitary practices. Local corruption has many faces.
https://chicagoboyz.net/archives/13160.html
The Trauma Center story.
Good grief. No one is safe. The only time I was hospitalized was in Laguna Beach in the 1990s. It was a good overall experience for me. Now, who knows?
South Coast hospital is now owned by Mission Hospital. I retired in 1993.
There truly is no escape . . .
I don’t have a clue if I’m a political warrior or not. I am completely sympathetic to SkipSul’s thoughts here. I consciously restrain myself in online and real life discussions a lot, even here on Ricochet, which I find to be a really nice environment for discussion. On the other hand, I believe “politics” are important and that even if someone isn’t really into politics everyone should care to some degree. For me, politics is just simply interesting, in addition to me finding it important, so it does indeed come up in conversation often. I also supported Sohrab in the Ahmari/French debate. I get sad and frustrated with a number of things going on in politics and culture. With that said, I was deeply disturbed with the high midterm election turnout. I didn’t find it an indicator of a healthy society. On the contrary, I think it’s really dangerous when so many view the current political situation as existential. So, I’m kind of all over the place on this. Many things in the OP and in various comments reminded me of this part in John Bew’s, Realpolitik: A History.