What Do We Do With Our Political Frustration?

If there’s one thing this week’s election has taught us it’s that using the power of the mainstream media complex to relentlessly label anyone right of Karl Marx a “Nazi” is a losing strategy.

It turns out that people aren’t all that inclined to consider your perspective when you demonize them for daring to disagree. It’s basic human psychology that’s baked into a number of idioms and proverbs: “You get more flies with honey,” as the saying goes.

If you seriously believe that Kamala Harris lost exclusively because of misogyny or racism, then you are being foolish and tone deaf and profoundly lacking in necessary introspection. Wake up from your wokeness and listen to your fellow Americans tell you that they are DONE with the censorship, done with the gaslighting, done with the race baiting, done with the gender cult, done with the thought policing and the medical tyranny, and the newspeak. Done with being called a racist bigot for wanting reasonable boundaries and border control. Done with apologizing for rejecting tent cities as any form of compassion. Done with economic policies that make it difficult for the working class to afford a carton of eggs to feed their family.

For at least the past decade, anyone with the audacity to disagree with the progressive party line on any of the aforementioned issues immediately found themselves cast as a backwards, unfeeling square. In the absence of a rational argument, our ideological opponents subjected us to a forcefield of strongly worded ad hominem attacks: bigot, racist, Xenophobe, homophobe, transphobe, white supremacist, etc.

For the past 10 years, I have publicly fought (at great personal cost and often against my own tribe, mind you) for the dignity of women. It is my passion and my calling. So when leftists insist that my pro-life views make me a raging misogynist, it does nothing whatsoever to change my mind. It’s just a really, really stupid thing to say. Insisting that I hate women is like insisting that Winnie the Pooh hates honey. All it does is validate my preconceived notions about their own deception and confirm to me that I’m over the target.

I felt the same way when angry men in dresses took megaphones to scream obscenities at me when I defended women’s spaces: These were not healthy, thriving individuals. Why on earth would I want to be anything like them? After a while, I started to wonder if the antagonists’ objective even included a desire to change my mind. It seemed like maybe the actual goal was just to feel powerful by behaving like bullies—that maybe they really believed that they could terrify people into submission to their agenda.

And in a certain sense, it does seem to have worked at least at some level. It’s only fear that’s allowed pornsick men to transjack women’s spaces and appropriate our existence. It’s only fear that’s entertained the notion of neo-pronouns as a legitimate concept. The Family Policy Institute of Washington produced a cringe-inducing video a few years back entitled “Can a 5’9” white guy be a 6’5” Chinese woman?” The video captured local college students as they visibly struggled through their cognitive dissonance about gender identity. In the video, it became abundantly obvious that they all knew they were lying in a way that made them look like complete fools, but none of them could bring themselves to resolve that cognitive dissonance by just telling the truth. They had been indoctrinated into sincerely believing that it was much better to be seen as foolish than as unkind. Unkind was the worst thing you could possibly be. So framing dissent as hatred has proven a really effective strategy—at least for a while.

But no one likes to live in fear or cognitive dissonance for long, and eventually resentment gives way to revolt, and I think that explains the inevitable red wave we saw on Tuesday. The question is whether anyone on either side will really learn or internalize the lesson. Or will we all just double down on the same tired tricks and blame shifting we’ve always done, refusing to take inventory of the myriad ways our own shortcomings contribute to the broader problem?

Because it’s not only the left that likes to demonize people. While it’s objectively true that the left has all the institutional power of the media and big pharma and Soros and his ilk at their disposal, it’s also true that, on the right, we have the institutional (and spiritual) power of the church, and I think it’s incredibly important how we wield it against those who disagree with us—especially if we claim to represent God.

Is our goal to change minds, or is our goal to give full vent to our frustrations and lash out at the people whose ideals we hate? It’s an important question, and the way we treat ideological opponents will answer it for us. When’s the last time anyone changed your mind about anything by screaming at you that you’re a terrible person? I personally can’t recall that ever working on me.

Do you call people libtards? Feminazis? Snowflakes? Freaks? Faggots? Do you share memes mocking leftists? Do you take delight in watching them melt down and cry “liberal tears?” Do you post sexually degrading memes about leftist female leaders? Do you smugly share videos on your social media channels of mentally disturbed individuals having breakdowns and convince yourself they’re representative of all leftists? Do you think it’s heroic to march outside abortion clinics with picket signs shouting “Murderer?”

Is your conversation about Democrats always dripping with disdain and contempt to the degree that any leftist reading your words will conclude that you think she is a terrible, brainless person? Do you emasculate leftist men and insinuate that they’re deficient? Do you get a thrill out of wearing bombastic clothes and sharing bombastic memes designed to humiliate people outside your in-group?

Listen, this is as much a self-preach as anything else. No sooner will I hit “publish” on this blog than someone will inevitably be able to find the online evidence of my own failures in this regard. It’s really, really hard to live by the standards I’m suggesting we adopt. It’s even harder not to demonize people when some of the ideas to which they subscribe are inherently demonic. I won’t be shy about saying that I think abortion is demonic. I think transing kids its demonic. I think misogyny is demonic. I will denounce these behaviors boldly and without apology. But I will also do so with reason and logic and fairness, as much as I am able—not with mockery and contempt and a desire to see people suffer. Craving the humiliation of other human beings is not righteousness. “It is the goodness of the Lord that leads to repentance,” not the angry red-faced spewing of condemnation from people who have more than enough of their own demons to exorcise.

If we actually care about the issues, if our true goal is to see substantive change, then it will always require working prayerfully alongside people who disagree with us and patiently inviting them into something better and more life-giving than their current paradigm. Are we behaving in ways that make people want to be more like us? Or is our true goal just a self-celebratory whine fest about everyone who’s inferior to us? Are we deriving a sense of superiority and identity in being above those lowly Democratic peasants?

Sitting around moaning about how terrible things are and wringing your hands about how the sky is falling is not activism. Anyone can do that. Many do.

The goal of activism is to see things change for the better.

To see things change for the better requires you to get your ideas in front of the people whose ideas need changing. Yes, this will often mean you have to talk to people on the opposite side of the political divide. It probably even means you’re going to have to treat them like humans.

This morning, I’m convicted that both sides of the great political divide have work to do in this regard.

I'm working to treat my writing like a job, so if you appreciate my writing, I would be so grateful if you would consider investing in a paid subscription. I try to keep my costs low, but my family thanks you for every dollar you invest in my writing. Thanks so much for your support!