Tales from the Mark Side: The Conservative Voice in Manatee County
It’s time for conservatives to take a hard look in the mirror
By Mark Young
It is time to face some harsh realities and take the necessary steps to fix what we have partially created.
Infighting between conservatives, along with the insane decision to vote personality over policy are what got us into this current mess.
You may not like what I have to say, but if we don’t acknowledge the problem, we simply can’t fix it.
Our own infighting led to the Biden administration, which killed 13 Americans in Kabul and a surrender to the Taliban of our dignity, along with billions of dollars in American equipment.
It got us on the brink of a financial collapse that will punish our grandchildren, our great grandchildren and more than likely their children’s children.
It put socialists in power and lost us the ability to defeat Biden’s agenda in the Senate by somehow turning Georgia blue. It elected the worst president and vice president in U.S. history and created an illegal immigrant catastrophe.
It ended our energy independence and put our national security in peril as China smells Biden’s weakness and threatens the U.S. with World War III. Biden ignores North Korean aggression, bows to Russian manipulation and emboldens Iran to continue its desire for nuclear weapons.
The world has not been in a more dangerous place since the rise to power of Hitler and Stalin. America has never been more vulnerable to destruction than it is right now.
And there is a faction within our party who are partially to blame for it all.
Yes, it’s the fault of the liberals who want to transform America’s identity into a globalist, socialist society, but if you voted for Biden and consider yourself a Republican or conservative, sorry, it’s your fault, too.
For those who abandoned conservative values over hurt feelings under Trump, it’s time to take some responsibility for allowing this nightmare of an administration to exist.
You helped a “president” with American blood on his hands and who disgustingly checked his watch 13 times as each flag-draped casket returned to American soil.
If that doesn’t humble you enough to do something to save this country, then stop calling yourself a conservative because you aren’t. If personality conflicts with fellow conservatives are getting in the way of making you understand that you are part of the problem, then how do we ultimately find the solution?
Voting personality over policy is the biggest sin you can do in a political environment where the very heart of our country is at stake. And unfortunately, because of that, we are all learning the hard lessons of a disastrous Biden administration that not only threatens our future, but our very existence as we know it.
Liberals want what Biden is selling, but they won by default because of those rogue Republicans who simply couldn’t ignore Trump’s personality instead of putting an emphasis on what the man was achieving.
I’ve said it many times over that I didn’t always like what Trump said, but I sure did love what he was doing for America after decades of inept leadership and broken promises.
As with everything else associated with Trump’s presidency, he didn’t create the problem. Trump exposed the weakness in our party.
Ultimately, the great awakening that returned millions of people back into the conservative political fold were betrayed by our own. The term “rino,” or Republican in name only, was rightfully placed on long-time Republicans who turned their backs on Americans.
People like Mitt Romney, Liz Cheney and the Bush family chose revenge over country because Trump had hurt their little feelings. And so did thousands of other so-called Republicans across the country.
Liberals didn’t win the election. Oversensitive conservatives lost the election.
And it was that infighting within the Republican party that stopped Trump from completing what was an already historic agenda.
Republicans, under Trump’s administration, failed to disband and replace Obamacare and couldn’t come together for infrastructure, as well other key legislation to advance Trump’s America first policy because of the infighting.
Trump was already fighting the treasonous actions of the DNC and rogue elements within the justice department. Did he really need to worry about elements in his own party as well?
Some of you need to take responsibility for that, but if you are a conservative, you will get another chance for redemption if we survive this current administration.
The result of that infighting between actual conservatives and the snowflake rinos, was to force Trump to go the executive order route. It made it too easy for Biden to dismantle what Trump was forced to do without Republican support in Congress.
Biden was able to kill the “America First” policies with strokes of the pen himself. Executive orders to undo executive orders because of Republican infighting.
Thankfully, the Democratic Party, which is essentially three different parties, are having the same problem getting anything done. It’s God’s blessing if you ask me that the good Lord is slowing the left down, but it’s also an opportunity to take a step back and learn from this very important lesson.
I see, and rightfully so, Republicans rejoicing at the Democratic infighting. But some Republicans have short-term memories because this is how foolish we looked to the left just a couple of years ago.
Unlike the three factions of the Democratic Party, Republicans and conservative independents do not suffer a vast divide in our goals and love for this country. The only thing stopping our success is the continued infighting and a refusal to set aside personality differences to achieve those goals.
We are not the “personality party,” and this is not a popularity contest.
We are conservatives who share common values and we must put personalities aside to do what is necessary for the greater good.
We may disagree, at times, which candidate to put forward during election cycles to accomplish our common goal, but that’s what the primaries are for. They are there to settle those differences and to let the voters decide.
From there, conservatives should be united in our single-focused objective of defeating liberal logic and tax-and-spend Democrats who weaken America’s strength in favor of expanding expensive socialist programs that only encourage system exploiters.
The conservative personality divide is true on the national level and it’s true on the local level. I see too many Republicans turning on other Republicans over petty personality issues and vying for a little bit of power in even some of our local Republican groups.
Selfish over service is not the answer and Republicans should not resort to political tricks to usurp other Republicans. It’s not who we are. Conservatives don’t like it and it only feeds our demise.
Conservative leadership isn’t about power and advancing one’s own self interest. We aren’t Democrats.
Great conservative leadership occurs when someone really doesn’t want the position, but has the ideas and will to move the conservative movement forward. They see a problem and want to fix it.
Instead, I’m seeing too much battling against one another when conservatives are all about giving everyone a voice. We need leaders who understand this simple truth nationally and locally.
If you are a conservative, we have too much common ground to let petty infighting get in the way of success. If your desire is to hold some insignificant title over achieving that goal, please step aside. Titles don’t impress conservatives, action does.
We cannot and will not survive as two factions within one movement by fighting against one another to achieve the same goal.
It’s like putting two people exactly halfway to a destination that can be reached by going in either direction. What happens when you tether them together with a rope and tell them to get to their destination together, but one insists on going west and the other insists on going east even though it’s the same distance?
They pull against one another and get nowhere.
In the meantime the rest of us just watch it unfold and grow increasingly frustrated at the madness of it all.
It’s going to lead us down a path of failure just as it has led us to this president’s administration, which is hell bent on creating an unrecognizable America.
We must unite locally and we must unite nationally. Who cares whose voice it is that leads the way as long as it’s the same message? It’s time to set aside egos and remember it’s not about an individual.
I will admit that it is difficult to forgive conservatives who voted personality over policy, which paved the way to the 2020 epic political failure, but forgive we must and forgive I do.
The soul of this country is counting on each one of us. As the saying goes, “United we stand, divided we fall.”
We tripped, fell and bloodied our own noses. It’s time to get back up on our feet, shrug off the scrapes and bruises and fight back on a united front.
Liberals are against us. The media is against us. Biden is bringing the full weight of the federal government, including the Department of Justice against us.
We simply cannot afford to be against one another in the coming battle to restore America’s greatness, power, integrity, dignity and the values we cherish.
