“Because to take away a man’s freedom of choice,
even his freedom to make the wrong choice,
is to manipulate him as though he were a puppet
and not a person.”

Madeline L’Engle

Society itself often acts in much the same way as the people it is composed of. People criticize each other by using adjectives such as “controlling” or “manipulative”, but truth be told it is pretty much basic human nature to try to control the world around us, along with the people in it, and to mold it according to our wishes. Existing at a higher level of our consciousness (or at least some of our consciousnesses) is the ethical consideration involved in coercing another human being to act in a way contrary to their own preferred convictions, and the imposition of our own will to dominate someone else’s. We have all been there, probably on both sides of the equation at one point or another. The parent who forgets that their child is an adult and entitled to make their own decisions, or the child who forgets that their parent was an adult before they were born. The husband who insults his wife to coerce her to lose weight, or the wife who nags her husband incessantly to get him to help her with the housework. The friend or coworker who somehow think they can run your life better than you yourself can. The situation becomes more complicated when the manipulator is right. Maybe that wife should lose a little weight. Certainly that husband should do his share of the housework. Possibly that adult child is making the mistake of a lifetime, or the elder parent is doing the same. Maybe that friend does know what you should do in that life situation. Certainly it is a good thing to talk, cajole, even argue in such situations, but at the point that we suppress free will; at the point we say I don’t care what you think, I will make you…; then we have turned the corner from being passionately helpful to being abusive. Free will is God’s gift to man, admittedly often to the detriment of both; but to take from a man that freedom is to rob the gift of God. Liberty is the extension of this freedom to society itself, and aside from the structure of laws implicit in the social contract, the use of force or manipulative tactics intended to coerce one segment of society to act in a way contrary to their preferences is the societal equivalent of the controlling spouse.

The way we settle differences in a civilized society is in the political arena. When President Obama was elected, and then re-elected, it was a crisis for us conservatives. We knew exactly what he stood for, and he did not fail to fulfill our expectations. It was the more discouraging because it meant that a majority of America wanted his vision for our country. If he had stolen the election, or taken over in a coup, we would have taken up arms to take back our country, but America had chosen him, and to disregard that choice, though we thought it horribly wrong, would have been un-american in itself. What was left to us was to change hearts and minds, and to prepare for the next election, hoping that people would come to their senses, but understanding that in a Democracy, the will of the people sets the course. To force our own will without changing hearts and minds is a kind of tyranny.

I have never been a fan of organized boycotts, sit-ins, blockades, or certainly riots. I suppose there might occasionally be a justification for a peaceful march, or other non-violent protest if the intent is to educate or raise awareness. That used to be the purpose of protests. Increasingly social protest seems to be being used to change behavior instead of hearts and minds. We block highways, boycott stores, hold up votes, not to educate, but to punish or coerce. We have replaced speaking with each other with yelling at each other, cursing at each other, controlling each other. That is not a society, that’s a jungle. With tools of communication beyond any man has known, we yet fail to engage each other in anything but war and insult. We are so intent on shouting down, shutting down, and putting down that we can’t appreciate a diversity of opinion and engage in reasoned debate.

It would be disingenuous to imply that this descent into the arena of coercion is completely one sided, but it would be equally disingenuous to say that it is not mostly one sided. Having lost everything but Obama’s re-election in the last four elections, progressives have apparently given up on playing the role of loyal opposition in favor of becoming the mortal enemy. This includes the liberal media. Everyone has a position, a bias, that they overcome to one extent or another in order to live peacefully with others, or in the case of an honest media, to do their job as impartially as possible. But when your bias tilts to hatred, it becomes the master, and it overcomes you. No longer do you consider how to live peacefully with fellow citizens, but how you can vanquish them. No longer, then, are reporters content to objectively report the news, but instead they crave blood and look to destroy. Hatred is rarely pretty, and it repels both those who are hated and the innocent onlookers. As jarring and over the top as Trump can be, as inaccurate or inept as he sometimes seems, as worthy of criticism as any President is sure to demonstrate, I can’t take my eyes off the haters. They are becoming the face of the left, and it’s a disturbing face to behold. Prudent democrats would be wise to begin looking for separation from them. The world is surprisingly dichotomous. Every story has a hero and a villain. We watch the news and see the anchor, self righteous and self satisfied with the latest bad news for the administration, we see the riots and destruction, the crude demonstrations, the screaming, the swearing, the chanting, the nuisances, the ridiculous costumes… the hate; then we see the Trump rally, opened by Melania with the Lord’s prayer, interrupted by an appearance by an everyman, a guy we probably wouldn’t agree with on everything, but a guy we can understand,  wearing a tee shirt and not a vagina costume. We see crowds cheering America, not criticizing her or anyone else, we see brotherhood, loyalty, support… love. What are we to think? We are Americans; we stand against bullies, we are repelled by the hateful who demand we hate as well, we stand for freedom and if you push us, we push back. We will not be ruled by domination, we won’t be controlled, we are not puppets.  In their vindictive hatred, unhinged coercion, and shot-gun rage, the left has cast themselves in the role of the evil antagonist, and left us with a most unlikely hero, Donald J. Trump.

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