Conservatives: America is Going to Need You

Dan

They are going to disappoint you.  

The pundits, journalists, bloggers, and twitter heroes – all the players in the game you thought were on your side will fold, one by one, and we should know better. Sure, there may be a few holdouts in the end, but by the time November rolls around you’ll see the signs on their lawn. The politicians now taking credit and claiming to lead a crusade for you will eventually fall in line, and ask that you do too. We know this because we’ve seen it before, and here it is, happening again. This, of course, is out of your control. Everyone has a price, or so you’ve heard. And you know they’ll wash their hands of it when it goes bad. They’ll slip out the back, and leave you to pay the check.

It’s hard having principles, that is why there are so few who have them. There is no payout. There is no ego boost. Standing by principle does not lend itself to pride, but to humility. Eventually you are wearing sackcloth sitting in a pile of ash. There is no joy in principle, there is no comfort. You might wish others would at least leave you alone, but that won’t be the case either. They’ll be hurling insults at you from all directions. There is great demand for people without principle, but much less for people with. People without principle have many friends, people with have very few. It’s a lonely life. Wouldn’t life be easier if you just let go? Yes, yes it would. Then why don’t you? Because you can’t. “Let go of your pride,”  they say, but it’s not pride that you cling to. No, pride is the destructive force that brought us here. Pride is what draws people to what is popular, instead of to what is right.  As a person of principle you’re going to be disappointed, and you’re going to be abandoned. But you’ll stay the voice of reason. Someone has to, and who else if not you?

It has to be you. You’ve been there before, you’ve been willing to look foolish for what is right, for all the heartbreak caused by the betrayal of others. It won’t be nearly as unbearable as betraying yourself, and you know, oddly, that giving in would betray them too. They’ll need you again.