Rekindling the will to wage the war for America's soul

The name of this blog continues to be apt.

In addition to the threat posed for the last century by a Left that hates the one essential condition for human well-being (freedom), we now have a second threat to this unique blessing to our species (the United States of America): an unfocused rage, rooted in a fear it shares with principled conservatism, but that manifests itself in scattershot attacks, often delivered in all caps, on targets that represent no discernible pattern, and is susceptible to adulation of a certain personality type based on a penchant for sheer outrageousness.

In a sense, this third force (the other two being the Left and Right) has its roots in the Left. The coarsening of our culture - art, education, news, and basic discourse - has been a major project of the Freedom-Haters for decades. See my recent post on the impact of rock and roll over the last sixty-plus years for an analysis of how celebration of that which is patently ugly rose to legitimacy and even prevalence.

And now we have one Republican presidential candidate, and one only, who feels free to use the word "shit" in his campaign speeches. And he's way ahead in every national poll.

It's tough to maintain the will to preserve and defend that which is true, good, right, decent and lovely. Don't be too hard on yourself if your resolve wavers.

If you've been so afflicted, the antidote of the moment is the latest issue of National Review. The theme of the entire magazine is "Against Trump." An editorial kicks it off, with unsparing candor:

Donald Trump is a menace to American conservatism who would take the work of generations and trample it underfoot in behalf of a populism as heedless and crude as the Donald himself.

The editors are to be applauded for enlisting an impressive cross-section of conservative figures to chime in with essays. They range from Dana Loesch to Cal Thomas to Thomas Sowell to Erick Ericsson to Glenn Beck.

The inevitable backlash is underway. A self-described Trump supporter / conservative  from California has posted a video of the "who-are-you-to-tell-me-whether-I-pass-muster-as-a-conservative-or-not" variety on the web, and it's gone viral. (By the way, she used the word "piss" twice by the one-minute mark.)

I just heard Laura Ingraham try to restrain herself and project composure as she questioned whether NR wasn't engaging in a perilously divisive exercise.

At this moment of chaos and peril, let us remember two of our highest values as conservatives: clarity and absolutes. Let us resolve to call the backlashers wrong.

There's a personal-refinement aspect to what is required of us, along with the courage to go into the public arena and fight with every fiber of our beings. When, from time to time, as we must, just as a soldier on the most raging battlefield must still occasionally rest, we pause, let us use that time to pray, think, read and reflect on what we really treasure. In so doing, we will carry back out into battle the level of keen discernment, articulation of our principles, and unshakable faith that sets us apart from both the Freedom-Haters and the tragically misguided enthusiasts of the bombastic narcissist who appears to own the moment.

Fight hard. Pray hard. It is very late in the day.