Scott Kamps
After losing the 2012 presidential election, it was clear the Republican Party needed major change or it would die.
Border laxity, neo-conservative foreign policy and “Great Society” spending were popular with elites, but not everyday Americans.
The GOP allowed the plebs to speak and we chose the candidate who actually listened to the middle class, without pandering to them while pushing policies endorsed by the military-industrial complex. For better or worse, Trump transformed the Republican Party, now aiming to disrupt American politics – God bless him.
Will Democrats learn from their loss? Watching the general reaction of mainstream media, I’m skeptical – but legacy media is rapidly losing influence. A few progressives are making connections, but they aren’t your typical liberals.
Sen. Bernie Sanders said, “It should come as no great surprise that a Democratic Party which has abandoned working class people would find that the working class has abandoned them.”
Comedian Bill Maher argued the election loss was not a result of sexism/racism, saying those excuses are “an old playbook … I think America’s perfectly willing to elect a woman – they just didn’t like the last two that were put up.”
Two obvious lessons: a divisive, panic-inducing campaign, calling your opponent Hitler, centered on promoting abortion is a losing strategy.
And let the plebs choose your candidate – don’t allow the aristocracy to just install one.
Some argue the election was close; the reality is Trump won the popular vote (as Republican), even while Kamala had mainstream media functioning as her public relations arm, majority support from Hollywood, and far more campaign money.
Because liberals gave attention to legacy media prior to the election, many were shocked/dismayed by the results. After spending election season being called “racists,’ “misogynists,” “Fascists,” “Nazis,” “uneducated,” and “garbage,” it’s tempting to delight at their ridiculous reactions.
But if you contemplate the over-the-top reactions that go viral, you’ll notice many are to be pitied. People in our day have bought the lie to always trust your feelings, failing to recognize that feelings can lead you astray. Not only lead us astray, they can distort perception of reality, causing immense pain.
Epictetus declared 2,000 years ago, “What really frightens and dismays us is not external events themselves, but the way in which we think about them. It is not things that disturb us, but our interpretation of their significance.”
It’s easy to fall into emotional reasoning – “I feel this way, therefore it’s true.” And if feelings are based on propaganda, then only truth can set one free.
Otherwise, as Milton wrote: “The mind is its own place, and in itself can make a heaven of hell, a hell of heaven.”
We need to be diligent to preserve the worth of God’s image-bearers despite political differences, and exercise care for them and our relationships with them. Taking this to heart, we’ll be more charitable with those we disagree with: maybe Trump’s really not Hitler, maybe conservatives are not Nazis and every Democrat is not out to destroy America.
Scott Kamps writes a bi-weekly column for The Graham Star. He can be reached via email, thestableguy@frontier.com.