‘My Fellow Liberals, I’m Tired Of You’ By ROD DREHER • December 20, 2016, 6:46 PM business plus/Shutterstock Amazing letter today from a reader. I’ve hidden a bit to protect her identity: I’m a secular/agnostic Californian and longtime reader of your blog. I’ve enjoyed your books beginning with Crunchy Cons, and have valued your insights over the years. Though you don’t know me, I feel like I know you and your family. And I want to share with you, from the liberal bastion of Northern California, that I am officially tired of the type of people who have surrounded me my entire life. In the wake of Trump’s election, I am experiencing “tribe fatigue.” I’m not tired of The Other, Detestable Tribe. I’m tired of my own. A bit about me: I am a [deleted] with two young children. My parents were non-religious Democrats, and my ex-Catholic mom loathes organized religion to this day. So I was raised a secular liberal. My college professors were secular liberals. During my journalism phase, my newspaper colleagues were secular liberals. My law school professors and peers were – in the vast majority – secular liberals. Almost everyone at my corporate law firm was a secular liberal. My California neighbors and friends are secular liberals, as are my colleagues. My mother, siblings, and their spouses are all secular liberals. By all rights, I should be a member in good standing of their tribe, “liking” their Facebook posts and joining their candlelight vigils against the evil Trump Administration. But November 8 and its aftermath revealed to me that I am just so tired of these people. I can’t be like them, and I don’t want my kids turning into them. I am tired of their undisguised contempt for tens of millions of Americans, with no effort to temper their response to the election with humility or empathy. I am tired of their unexamined snobbery and condescension. I am tired of their name-calling and virtue-signaling as signs of supposedly high intelligence. I am tired of their trendiness, jumping on every left-liberal bandwagon that comes along (transgender activism, anyone?) and then acting like anyone not on board is an idiot/hater. I am tired of their shallowness. It’s hard to have a deep conversation with people who are obsessed with moving their kids’ pawns across the board (grades, sports, college, grad school, career) and, in their spare time, entertaining themselves and taking great vacations. I am tired of their acceptance of vulgarity and sarcastic irreverence as the cultural ocean in which their kids swim. I like pop culture as much as the next person, but people who would never raise their kids on junk food seem to think nothing of letting then wallow in cultural junk, exposed to nothing ennobling, aspirational, or even earnest. I am tired of watching them raise clueless kids (see above) who go off to college and within months are convinced they live in a rapey, racist patriarchy; “Make America Great Again” is hate speech; and Black Lives Matter agitators are their brothers-in-arms against White Privilege. If my kids are like that at nineteen, I’ll feel I’ve seriously failed them as a parent. Yet the general sentiment seems to be these are good, liberal kids who may have gotten a bit carried away. I am tired of their lack of interest in any form of serious morality or self-betterment. These are decent, responsible people, many compassionate by temperament. Yet they seem two-dimensional, as if they believe that being a nice, well-socialized person who holds the correct political views is all there is, and there is nothing else to talk about. Isn’t there, though? I am tired of being bored and exasperated by everybody. I feel like I have read this book a thousand times, and there are no surprises in it. Down with Trump! Trans Lives Matter! Climate deniers are destroying the planet! No cake, we’re gluten-free! These are good people in a lot of ways. But there has got to be a better tribe. That leads me to . . . drum roll . . . the Christian Right. It is no small feat, switching tribes. It feels stressful and weird to abandon your tribe for the Detested Other Side. Since November 8, my husband and I have been taking the kids to church. (He is politically conservative with a religious bent, so no argument there.) I have come this close to buying a giant poster of the American flag for the living room. I may do it still. Right now, I am struggling to accept the basic Christian doctrines (virgin birth, resurrection, second coming) because I feel the Christian tribe may be the right tribe for my family. We just finished watching a BBC miniseries about the birth of Jesus, which was so beautiful and moving compared to secular TV. My nine-year-old really enjoyed it. I want to prepare my kids to live according to some unchanging truth, not subject to every passing trend, and this felt like a start. But I worry that an inability to believe in the supernatural aspects of the faith will limit my ability to be a “real” Christian. Last Sunday’s sermon mentioned 1 Peter:18-19, “For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your ancestors.” This may be obvious to you, but secular liberalism does seem empty in some way, despite all the things my educated, middle-class tribe has to be grateful for. If that’s what’s been handed down to me, I want more, especially for my precious kids. I’m trying. I plan to respond to this reader privately, but she said I could share this letter as long as I protected her identity. What a courageous person she is. God bless her on her journey. http://www.theamericanconservative.com/dreher/fellow-liberals-tired-of-you/
Folks, the left is tripping all over themselves to "educate" you that there was nothing in the Nunes FISA memo. ---Make no mistake though, this memo was an absolutely Earth shaking bombshell. In addition, it's likely only about 10 percent's worth of the revelations that will be coming out. (I expect the Grassley memo later this week or early next). I continue to hear people talk about how this was just about Carter Page. ---Then why wasn't anything from the Carter Page investigation that started earlier used in the FISA application???. ------This FISA warrant was about one thing and one thing only and that is to be able to tap Page to hear and learn of any contacts with Trump past or present or any discussions Page may have had with others about Trump-----The FISA warrant was a way to "Get Trump" . You're a fool or miscreant if you think otherwise. ---Page had been looked at for 3 years prior to this and they could have tried a FISA anytime but chose this time???----Folks, Get Right!
Refreshing article. She does mention secular liberals and that is really all there is on that side meaning all liberals are secular. I don't mean secular in the way that most would consider it. For example, I am Agnostic, but I do not consider myself to be secular because I believe that if you live by the principles outlined in The Bible, then you and society will be the better for it. It's just the correct way to live. ----Liberals however, even the ones that claim to believe in God, do not follow Bible teachings in the way that they conduct themselves. So, all Liberals are secular. I'm glad she is making the change. Liberalism and Progressivism is disgusting.
The Grassley Memo came out today and we have now learned that Christopher was working on second anti-Trump dossier.
I think this period in time could be called Whitey's Last Stand. Do whatever it takes to preserve Whitey's power.
because you are not a racist... correct covert? you know what... I would not even mind your posts... if you just said it.... you are pro whatever your race is and you want to replace white people. its the dishonest bullshit.... that is so devious and creates hate on both side. if you admitted that its ok for you... than you would have to admit its okay for someone else to wish to preserve their culture or race. I don't mind mixing of cultures... I believe in the market place of ideas and cultures. I just want to see a fair competition. What I don't like is politicians rigging the competition to favor one side or the other. .
Conservative principle: Punish the country with austerity when a Dem is president but goose the economy when it's an R at the wheel.
What? Trump cut taxes. Obama cut payroll tax... which expired quickly and then raised taxes Democrats wish to destroy growth with tax increases. Then we get to read how hard it is to grow mature economies or that a state is too big and ungovernable. besides the democrats were in control during the first 2 years. Obama could have passed anything he wished... like obamacare taxes. he sucked thousands of dollars out of middle class and up families with that massive tax and misdirection.