Following the dubious 2020 election, various conservatives took different approaches in their respective responses.  Generally speaking, the shared sense was anger and disillusionment.  Some responded by giving the proverbial finger to the whole system and the whole process.  After all, only registered voters can be called in for jury duty.  If the whole thing is rigged, why cast my meaningless and totally disrespected vote toward something that I cannot affect?  Paying attention to “politics”, doing anything substantially grassroots, and spending days in a courtroom are all costly activities.  Those have been the sentiments of the truly brokenhearted.

There have also been the scrappy bunch who took the 2020 election shenanigans as their cue to finally do something substantial.  Enough whining about the democrats grassroots being full of energetic kids who thrive on having nothing to lose.  Time to show them what a grown up man can do when he is sufficiently aroused to defend the things that he cannot afford to lose.  This has been the spirit of a renewed Republican grassroots movement since the last election.

It has not been all sunshine and roses.  The present author has lamented plenty over the naivety of the elderly Republican grassroots bulwark.  Most of these endearing Boomers still argue and operate from the same vantage point they did when they got Trump elected. “Wait until November comes! People are waking up!  America will not accept high gas prices! Don’t the democrats know that electric cars aren’t viable?  They must be some kind of stupid!  Don’t they realize that We the People are their bosses? We are about to fire them!” It can be nauseating.

But new players and more realistic veterans in the mix offer plenty for the American conservative and Great Resister to be hopeful about, even if the election does not go exactly as we would like this November.  There is hope to be had.

 

Bounce Back

In January of 2021, I wrote an article, Bounce Back,  that is still my most “upvoted” article to date. Considering that this blog has zero presence on legacy social media and generates literally no revenue, 20 plus likes is something to be proud of.  Readers, thanks for the love!  Just a couple of weeks removed from the January 6^th catastrophe and the Biden inauguration, many friends I knew were utterly dejected and despondent. Jab mandates everywhere were inevitable. Every election from now on would clearly be fixed, so it seemed.  The feeling of “I was born in America and am blessed to live in a free country with minimal suffering until I die” was definitely over. What happened? Are we totally without power? Is God not seeing this? I thought this was God’s country? These were a few of the many sentiments that American conservatives shared as they sat around paralyzed and broken.

I wrote an article that essentially just stated the same things any other influencer would say to people he loves too much to see them stewing in their misery.  It was encouraging and motivating, but with a caveat.  I didn’t have much optimism then, just as I lack optimism now.  The state of the world, overall, is constantly getting worse. Period. But the point I made then was that hope is entirely different than optimism. And there is great reason to be hopeful!

Optimism is what you engage in with your reason alone. It’s the sense that things on the natural order, here on earth, as it affects one's personal and material security, are all going to be okay.  One can have optimism simply by participating in politics as a spectator.  He can watch his podcasts, check polls, and view the “real clear politics” map to gain optimism.  As long as he can intellectually perceive a realistic chance for his side to win elections, and thus influence the natural order of things in the world for the better, then he can have optimism without ever leaving the couch.

After spending a year and a half recruiting over a dozen precinct committeemen, gathering signatures to get good candidates on the ballot, personally meeting all the local and regional candidates in my area, and helping to convince one man to run for school board, I am less optimistic in the trajectory of this country now than I was before getting involved.  But my hope is at an all time high!  I knew there were some real warriors out there, but until I got involved after 2020, I didn’t personally know any of them.  Now I do. They give me hope in humanity and in the spiritual consolation that God offers to the faithful who do His will.  The primaries brought defeat to the majority of the true statesmen I have met. There went much of the optimism I had left.  But now that I know that these warriors and true lovers, people willing to suffer for the good of their neighbor, are out there leading my community in a variety of ways, I have even more hope in the spiritual state and well being of my community than ever!

 

Political victories this past year

Let’s start with some wins.  A year after the 2020 election, a major win for a Republican proved a variety of things.  As Glenn Yougnkin was elected Governor of Virginia, it definitely gave Republicans a reason for optimism, as it proved that American elections were not eternally turnkey fixed for the democrats in every state from now until the end of our nation.  What a relief.  But in terms of hope, a much greater win was accomplished.

Youngkin was elected because of a fierce grassroots movement.  His victory was the direct result of parents in Lauden County taking hold of their state and refusing to put up with so many things that are wrong with this country right now.  A girl raped in a bathroom because of “inclusive” policies and a school system that miserably failed the girl after the assault?  Yeah, that just about sums up what’s wrong with America right now.  Youngkin was elected because enough parents stormed the school board meetings and rallied enough voters to show that they were fed up.  “The people” got off their rear ends and literally influenced politics in favor of conservative policies. In 2021, who knew that could be a thing?

Then Roe V. Wade was over turned on June 24^th.  Why does this give us reason for hope?  Isn’t this the issue that has wrecked the Republicans chances at winning the midterm this year?  Erg!  This is significant because of the circumstances by which it happened.  Let’s not kid ourselves, the Dobbs decision was made by a squad of practicing Catholics who knew, first, that Roe v. Wade should have been overturned because human life is sacred, and second, because Roe v. Wade was unconstitutional.  Let the world know that, in 2022, the most powerful nation in the world, in the tank for the New World Order Agenda, can be ground zero of a major blow to Moloch made by a few brave Catholics put in the right position.  Even if this is “the reason” Republicans lose the Senate in the midterm, this win, after a hard fought 50 year battle by so many great God fearing Americans, should give us enough hope to trump whatever proximate political loss may come of it. If God’s will was truly done, have no fear, rather, take consolation in the hope that this victory gives us. God wins.

At the local/regional level, this year saw the success of landmark legislation in Arizona. The freeing up of ESA money for parents to spend their taxpayer dollars on exactly the private education they want is a really big deal. It is such a big deal, that leftists went hard trying to block universal ESA money until it could be voted on in the 2024 election.   The “Save our Schools” (SOS) campaign went out in full force, trying to get over 118,000 signatures to block this funding.  A Fox News oped by a local conservative woman, who led a counter movement against “SOS”, reveals how the leftists fought and how and why energetic grassroots conservatives struck back.  According to this grassroots fighter:

      On Saturday, July 9, I first encountered a couple working for SOS. They 
      misrepresented the petition by saying untrue things about ESAs, upsetting me… In
      a respectful way, I verbally countered two of their volunteers for over an hour on
      their misrepresentation, and that is when I decided I wasn’t going to stand by and
      watch this happen to our state and to our families… I would position myself   
      nearby on public sidewalks in 110-degree heat, waiting for unsuspecting Arizonans
      to approach the SOS signature gatherers so that I could give them the truth
      before they signed… SOS repeatedly lost support because they could not persuade
       reasonable people once the truth was exposed… We ended this little campaign with
       over 1,000 families helping statewide...

SOS didn’t get their required signatures.  In fact, they embarrassingly overestimated their signatures by tens of thousands and got their Democrat Secretary of State, Katie Hobbs, caught up in their gaffe.  This is the grassroots in action! There are warriors out there willing to stand against the leftist political machine. They can and they will continue to gain victories. Have hope.

 

School Board

After I wrote Bounce Back in 2021, one man personally expressed his appreciation for the lift he said the article gave him.  While I am thankful for the positive feedback, it is grace that has carried this man through the school board run that he is currently in the thick of.

When this man began his run, he admitted that he was unaware of all the ins and outs of the school board and of the American education system.  I told him that the important thing was that good conservative men simply take as many posts as they can.  Finding out what our schools have become, what we need to save them, and the challenges good school board members are up against would come to him while he campaigned.  He has since acknowledged the accuracy of that advice!

For anyone who is considering running for school board in the future, I will give you the same cliff notes before you start your campaign: thousands of “popular revolution” warriors have infiltrated our schools.  They have played a long game since the 60’s to dismantle Western Civilization through public education.  Many of these people satisfy a void in their lives from a lack of formation, an unstable family life growing up, or a feeling of “disenfranchisement” from society, by seeking retributive “justice” through public service.  Indoctrinated by Marxist professors at increasingly “woke” universities, thousands of Gen Xers and Millennials have taken over the American public schools.  While they do not make for all of the teachers, counselors, and school board members across the country, they make up enough of them to have made an enormous impact.  Children are losing their ability to read, write, and do basic arithmetic, but they can articulate critical “justice” theory on social media, embrace menial labor jobs as career aspirations, and are eager to accept a new standard of living void of personal property.  While most of us were napping, the popular revolution has made amazing advances!

My school board candidate friend has been blown away to see all that and more from up close now.  As he put it, “There are tens of thousands of children served by public schools in my district. Give credit to leftists looking to gain more political control over the last few decades. By controlling the schools, they can control tens of thousands of minds. That’s power! That’s power held by a few bad actors who must be stopped by enough parents and concerned citizens who care and are willing to take their community back.”

Well said. Ad Majorem Dei Gloriam.

 

What to do now?

October is winding down, but it’s not over yet. I once asked a college professor how much God can really care about who wins American political races when Christians are still martyred around the world, humans are trafficked as sex slaves, and thousands of unborn babies are murdered daily.  “How can we be sure God really cares about who wins a local election when he lets all these sorts of evils happen every day? I’m almost embarrassed to pray for local political wins when I see how God tolerates most of the world’s politics.”  His response was brilliant: “God cares that we care.”

There is still time to get involved in some significant grassroots efforts before the November election.  Work your sphere of influence to get as many voters as you can to help get good conservative candidates elected.  Beyond the fears of the Great Reset (no democrat will ever oppose the Great Reset in any meaningful way) and beyond run away inflation is a larger agenda that leftists have in mind.  I have put a lot of thought into how to combat the current “culture” of woke, Reset, and pro-abortion ideologies that dominate the West today. I have heard the pitch made by dozens of well meaning Catholics in my life, time and time again: “in order to fight this Godless culture, we must be counter-cultural!” After much thought, I disagree.

There is an ideal form of culture that the West has traditionally attempted to manifest over the last 2,000 years.  It is the culture of Christendom.  It has roots in a tradition that respects logic and reason, while also respecting a natural law ethos based upon the notion that one God created a nature for man.  Man must live in community with one another while respecting that nature made by God.  An authentic culture is one whereby a community of people profess the same beliefs, works for the real common good together, engages in honest commerce together, and have large families and raise children to be good and productive citizens.  Authentic culture is found where a community appreciates truth, justice, and law determined by right reason.

Resetters, libertines, Molochists, and Marxist revolutionaries don’t offer some sort of alternative culture of division, baby murder, weed, porn, a future without property, and bodily implanted microchips.  They indeed offer all of these things, but they are actually advancing  a counterculture by offering them. The Vikings didn’t offer a culture of pillage, murder, and rape to Medieval Europe. They offered a counterculture to Christendom itself.  Christians responded to the threat, to their authentic culture, by banding together and building fortresses to protect their culture of life, faith, farming, the arts, and peace under the ultimate rule of God.  It’s time for us to defend and protect our culture.  If you can donate to a local candidate who will protect our culture, do it.  If you can help put up a few more road signs for a statesman who will defend authentic culture, do it.  If you can get as many people within your circle of influence to vote for the leaders who will resist the counterculture of death and chaos at this time, do it!

Below is a list of all the “Purple for Parents” endorsed candidates for school board in the Phoenix area. For some context, Purple for Parents was founded by a grassroots group of concerned citizens whose mission has been to provide an antidote (hence, “purple”) against the “Red for Ed” teachers union initiative in our state. One of it’s chief founders, a God fearing Bible thumping Constitutionalist, is the man who convinced me to run for Precinct Committeeman.  He and the rest of the “Purple for Parents” movement are authentic culture defenders.  Take their endorsements and SPREAD THEM WIDE by whatever means you have.

If your district is not on the list below, consider voing OPPOSITE the list of candidates and propositions endorsed by the far left "Save our Schools" group.  Their proposition, state candidate, and school board guides can be found here.

 

The clock is ticking, and God cares that you care. Go get it!

 

God bless,

Gadfly