Fall 2023—Conservatism’s Answers To Corruption And Foreign Aggression: Situational Honesty, Moral Clarity, And A Disproportionate Adherence To Bold, Decisive Action

The Corrupt…And Frankly Stupid…Marriage Between America’s Auto Unions And The Democratic Party

You are not wrong if you assume that Christopher Peterson gets fed up and frustrated almost every single day with all the stupidity, corruption, and evil on display in his country, in his society and its culture and government. Frankly, I don't have the energy to post on social media every time this happens.

But on September 15th, 2023, I just could not resist pointing out the clear evidence of just how far the United States has gone in abandoning the principles of the free market and properly limited government.

Did anyone else feel, as I did then, that it was just weird and disturbing and inappropriate to see the Biden regime swooping in as quickly and aggressively as it did to "mediate" the auto union strike? Do we really accept that we live in a country in which the government feels instinctively entitled to coerce, coordinate, and coopt the corporations and unions in a manner so reminiscent of classic fascism? Does anyone else see how gross it was that Joe Biden had the gall to insist on fighting for "record" high paychecks for auto union members? This from the guy who has loudly and proudly declared war on the oil industry! This from the guy who spends the resources and influence of the federal government to mandate electric vehicles, burden the auto companies with paralyzing regulations, and generally make American car companies as uncompetitive as possible!

But the stupidity and corruption don't end there. It amazes me that the auto union members continue, year after year, to donate to and vote for the Democratic Party...the very political party that seeks to ruin the market for automobiles through the aforementioned policies and tactics. Though I suppose I shouldn't expect anything less from unions that have been slowly destroying the car companies since at least the 1970s.

My head just spins and spins with all the stupidity on display as well as the stupidity on which the political players involved feel they can count on from the watching and voting public.

We've got to do better than this.

Democrats’ Stance On Border Security Is A Joke

In 2016, Donald Trump came along and proved me wrong by becoming the most serious and effective leader and politician on the issue of stopping illegal immigration in my lifetime thus far. He pushed for our country to "build that wall" on the southern border.

During the entire Trump presidency, the Democrats howled and screamed, as they have for my entire life thus far, that Donald Trump and those of us who want secure borders and support building a border wall are nothing but hateful racists. This included Joe Biden, who vowed in 2020 that if he ever became president, "not one foot" of border wall would be built on his watch.

Now, in 2023, after spending more than two years undermining our national security and dismantling our borders, the Joe Biden administration is building more of the border wall because leftist and liberal Democrats living in New York and Chicago are complaining of the inevitable chaos and disorder that ensue whenever a government surrenders its nation's sovereignty by failing to protect the integrity of borders and to uphold the law and order associated with a sensible and responsible management of immigration into the country.

And yet...even as Joe Biden caves to reality and builds that border wall, he still tells reporters that walls don't work. Why? Because admitting that walls work would mean admitting that Donald Trump was right.

The Joe Biden regime would be nothing more than a pathetic joke if it wasn't for the real damage it is inflicting upon our country and its citizens. The Biden administration and the Democrats' stance on illegal immigration are pathetic jokes indeed, but if American voters in general do not reject the president and his party in the upcoming elections, the joke will be on us.

I, for one, am getting tired of being the victim of this particular Democrat joke.

In A World That Desperately Needs Peace, Hamas Seeks To Tear Down And Destroy

I woke up on the morning of October 7th to watch the groundbreaking ceremony for my church's soon-to-be-built temple in Modesto, CA...

...and ended up spending part of my morning watching the horrifying and enraging footage of the latest invasion of Israel by the terrorist thugs known as Hamas: civilians being hunted down and murdered without mercy in the streets of Israel's cities, thousands of rockets raining down upon city centers, and the bodies of Israeli soldiers being desecrated by terrorists.

I stand with Israel in this moment of peril, and pray for the safety of my family members who live over there, for the safety of the peace-loving civilians on both sides of the conflict, and for the swift spirit of justice to attend the Israel Defense Forces as they go about their very important and righteous work in the days ahead.

In a world where some of us build for peace, others seek to tear down and destroy that peace. In its efforts to stop the enemies of peace, I hope Israel defends itself with effectiveness, vigor, and decisive finality.

American Conservatism Shows Us A Better Way Forward

You know why I think Ron DeSantis is the best candidate for the presidency of the United States? Because of all the people currently vying for that position (and there are a number of admirable candidates that I would be happy and willing to vote for), DeSantis consistently does the best job of manifesting the perfect combination of conservative ideological purity, realistic pragmatism, and unity-inspiring common sense...and all without a loss of perspective on what is truly right and wrong, good and evil in the world of politics and government. I realize that it is foolish to wish for another Ronald Reagan, but I don't see anything wrong with seeking out leaders who are Reaganesque.

I get excited when leaders come along and offer up so much in the way of moral clarity and unity-inspiring common sense, who are openly unafraid of identifying problems for what they are, openly unafraid of identifying evil as evil. I feel obligated to point out that I'm getting the sense that our new Speaker of the House, Mike Johnson, might end up proving to be a leader in that mold.

I had very few problems with Kevin McCarthy, so please don't interpret my post here as an effort to cast him in a bad light, but I just LOVED hearing Mike Johnson addressing the House and the start of his tenure and explaining conservatism in such a positive and easy-to-understand manner: individual freedom, limited government, the rule of law, peace through strength, fiscal responsibility, free markets, and human dignity. The Democratic Party is out to destroy all of these values and precepts, the country is moving away from them, and too many Republicans are forgetting them. It's so refreshing to see Mike Johnson beginning his Speakership with expressions of gratitude for his immediate predecessor, with prayer to our Heavenly Father, with no holds barred condemnations of atheism and Marxism, and with a rhetorical decency and polish that does a lot to reassure people that dignity in statesmanship can still go a long way.

I'll just say it as clearly as I can: I think the United States and the world would both be in far better conditions if men like Ron DeSantis and Mike Johnson were allowed to lead. I really hope Americans are paying attention right now as law and order, the world order, and the moral order all continue to crumble around us. I really hope they pay attention to which parties and groups and individuals are largely to blame for those things, and in the days ahead I hope they will lend a listening ear to us conservatives as we continue to insist that the world doesn't have to be on fire like it is right now, that the country doesn't have to be wallowing in mediocrity and uncertainty like it is right now, that our foreign policy doesn't have to be defined by weakness and retreat, our economy defined by endless spending and debt, or our culture defined by corruption and depravity.

American conservatism provides a better way forward, and I pray that more leaders like DeSantis and Johnson are given chances to show us that way.

Disproportionate Military Responses To Violent Aggression Are The West’s Only Proper Answer To Islamic Terrorism

“Iranian-backed Houthi terrorists in Yemen fired two ballistic missiles at a U.S. destroyer in the Gulf of Aden just after midnight on Monday, November 27th, after the vessel thwarted an attempt by terrorists to seize a tanker connected to an Israeli businessman. U.S. forces in the region have been attacked at least 66 times by various Iranian-backed terrorists since October 17th, just 10 days after Hamas terrorists, who are also backed by Iran, launched an unprecedented terrorist attack against Israel. Senator Tom Cotton, a Republican representing Arkansas, said on Sunday, November 26th, that the only way to stop the attacks would be to launch a ‘massive retaliation to make it clear we will not tolerate these attacks on Americans.’”

I agree with Senator Cotton, and I am posting about this because I have Facebook friends who have recently been morally misguided in their calls for Israel to cease hostilities against Hamas, in their portrayal of Palestinians as the ultimate victims in this current phase of the war between Israel and its anti-Semitic enemies. I have grown tired of hearing calls for Israel to exercise restraint in its military actions against terrorism, of people in even the highest echelons of the Biden regime warning Israel that its use of coercive violence against the Gaza Strip must not be "disproportionate". It offends me to hear this from a political party that has bent over backwards to make nice with the Iranians and a federal administration which did not protest so emphatically when the Ukrainians responded to a Russian invasion of their country with counteroffensives equipped with American weaponry. As for the anti-Israel posts that I've seen coming from some quarters on Facebook, I'd like to state plainly that when Israel suffers a terrorist attack in which over a thousand civilians are intentionally targeted for mass torture, kidnapping, and murder, nobody who wishes to stand on the side of civilization should feel entitled to counsel restraint or "proportional" military responses.

"Proportional" military responses do not end wars. Instead, they perpetuate and inflame them. The seemingly never-ending war between Israel and some of its Palestinian neighbors is proof of this. War deserves to be treated as a more serious business than that. War is a terrible thing and should only ever be engaged in under the most serious of circumstances. However, when the choice for war has been made, that choice must be pursued with maximum force and resolve in the interest of achieving victory as quickly as possible and in the interest of saving as many lives as possible in the long run. Defensive and morally justified warfare is meant, among other things, to send a message. It is a message that disproportionately, overwhelmingly, and violently tells the enemy to cease and desist, to cry "uncle!" and beg for forgiveness, to stop abusing and attacking the aggrieved nation. War is meant to inflict pain, and in any war between two groups with differing levels of moral justification, it is always to be hoped for that "the good guys" can inflict enough pain on "the bad guys" to convince them to change their behavior.

The modern state of Israel is not a perfect society, but its conflict with its Arab enemies has been going on for far too long. I won't speak here about anything that went on prior to the year 2000, but I will say that since then even the most casual and truly unbiased observer should agree with me that the Israeli government has been more than willing to compromise and accommodate on this increasingly silly notion of a two-state solution. I call the idea silly because no sovereign state can or should tolerate the kinds of neighbors that unrepentant Palestinian terror groups like Hamas have been to the Jews, Christians, and Muslims who collectively call the Holy Land home.

In a similar way, no self-respecting American electorate should tolerate a federal government that has worked as hard as the Joe Biden regime has to dismantle American military strength and resolve, to undermine the sense of deterrence that oh-so-recently used to stave off the violent misadventures of American enemies like Iran. It is entirely unacceptable for Iran and its many proxies to feel like they can get away with messing with Israel or the United States, but that is precisely the premise that the Joe Biden government has done too little to bolster.

I am not calling for an all-out boots-on-the-ground war against Iran. I am not calling for unrestricted American military intervention on behalf of Israel. But I am decrying any attempts to make Israel and its Palestinian enemies out to be moral equivalents in this war. There are ways short of all-out war through which our enemies can and should be swiftly and brutally punished for their attacks against us, and to start with, the Joe Biden government should allow the Israelis to do whatever it takes to win the war in Gaza as swiftly as possible. I stand with Israel by imploring the rest of the Western world to stand aside and allow the Israelis to do what is necessary first before any peace can be achieved: achieving a convincing military victory that inflicts enough pain on Hamas that the organization never rises again. Peace will never be achieved as long as Hamas is allowed to survive or its ideology allowed to be seen as a viable option by Palestinians as a regime for self-governance.

I also believe that the Joe Biden government should unequivocally abandon any and all attempts to pursue the doomed-from-the-start nuclear deal with Iran. I know it's too much to ask, but I think Biden and his people should publicly repudiate all of their past efforts to secure such a deal. Biden and those leading his administration should swallow their pride, admit that Donald Trump was right, and start working right away to rebuild the broad Middle Eastern anti-Iran coalition that the Trump people so successfully crafted and cultivated just a few years ago.

I support the U.S. military and the interests of the country it stands ready to protect and defend. I do this by insisting that our country, its military, and its people all deserve better than the poor statesmanship offered up thus far by Joe Biden and his weakling administration.

And to those who continue day after day to proactively root for a Hamas victory in this war...I have nothing kind to say, so I will keep it short and simple: I think you need to do a serious and in-depth reassessment of what you value in life. Since I was eleven years old, I've gone from living in a country in which I thought we all cried tears of joy when Saddam Hussein was captured or when Osama bin Laden was killed, to now living in a country in which the dangerously misinformed parade through city streets carrying Hamas flags and extolling the "life-changing" insights of Osama bin Laden on Tik Tok. I echo the words of George W. Bush: either you're with the forces of freedom and civilization, or you're with the terrorists who seek to tear those things to shreds. That's a choice that shouldn't be hard to understand, hard to make, hard to live with, or hard to defend.

--Christopher Peterson, November 27th, 2023