Editor,
Recently, the University of New Mexico saw a flareup of political tensions. Reading between the lines, I’m happy to relate that we are currently undergoing a major political shift in the United States.
Student groups at UNM expressed in a letter on 1/26 that they will “protect students from fascism and violence” in anticipation of the flareup, in which police were needed to protect event attendees from protesters; this and other occasions of widespread protest illustrating well how conservatism represents a new counter-culture.
We are witnessing the death throes of the politically correct, humorless, barren and confused in our political system. What they and their liberal friends misunderstand is that social justice today does not hold the same moral substance it once could. No longer is it enough to assume the moral high ground before relating one’s opinions. Quite problematically for the progressive left, this ruins them in their current state like a vampire to sunlight. Numbered are the days of applying absurd labels to one’s foes and claiming positive ones like “Black Lives Matter” to justify personal perspectives on statistically confounded phenomena.
Whereas right-oriented shifts often aim directly for the power structure, left-oriented shifts tend to make more public displays instead. Hence the feelings of being left out felt by so many witnessing this revolution.
Over the past 30 years, liberalism began to overshoot the equality it sought. The assumption of moral righteousness in progressive politics became unquestionable. It was during this time that conservatism clung to religion - rather than upholding the equality that did exist - in response to infringements and offenses to what might have been dubbed their own set of “Civil Rights.”
Those movements fizzled out quickly because the sociopolitical zeitgeist still afforded progressivism popular appeal. Conservatives grew tired of the fight to control others’ lives. Now, rather than fighting that unjust battle, conservatism is taking the high ground through action.
Those who support President Trump today tend to have a noninvasive agenda: They prioritize the jobs lost to one-sided “free trade” deals. They lament the near-zero incentive for family rearing against an absolute incentive for family dissolution created by big government. Many of them are sick of our children suffering from foreign wars. Some Trump supporters dislike how, despite their party’s progressive politics in the Civil Rights era, their children have adopted an artificial place in society beyond their control.
Conservatives being called haters and discriminators, after 50 years of earnest political accommodation, have come to understand the futility of virtue signalling intended to supplant open dialog: This is how Donald Trump, our president, is yet far from a saint.
Liberals have said the worst about people who think borders ought to be controllable - who dare to even suggest that immigration should not be the mere factor of who your neighbors happen to be. However, the era of people who take offense to the idea that America is the greatest country in the world for a diverse populace is coming to an end.
They have rapidly become the political underclass, and the people who felt under a great weight - these past 30 years in particular - are seeing the first real inkling of political enfranchisement in their lifetimes.
Professional pollsters couldn’t even calculate their existence. These are the people 30-something news anchors haven’t talked about. These are the people who professional politicians assume will vote for more of the same. These are the people who paid the taxes which have run this half-a-century grand experiment of accelerated government expansion.
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They have put the food on our tables of faux inclusiveness for three decades, while we’ve ungraciously bemoaned and belittled their worldview.
Donald Trump is following through on his campaign promises so far. It follows suit that his supporters will have their wall, too. They will also have their America First policy in trade and foreign relations. And they will do all they can to Make America Great Again, in what appears to be the beginning of a new era.
Brian Macklin
Daily Lobo reader
