FROM OUR PRINTED MAY 2026 EDITION (PART 1 was printed in the edition, this is the complete article)
by Lawrence Carpenter
Several miles from home is a gas station that offers 93 octane gasoline. As my forty-odd, year-old pickup truck will tolerate no lesser fuel, every week or so I venture forth to satisfy its needs. While there I usually grab a cup of coffee in the store and frequently encounter an individual I have accepted as a casual acquaintance good for the usual few minutes of free-flowing small talk concerning the weather, the recent performance of the regional pro sports teams, or perhaps the antique car that just pulled away from the pumps.
The last time, however, was different. During the previous couple days, national news media had centered on the massive number of illegal aliens now firmly ensconced in America and the various machinations of their proposed amnesty. When I walked into the store my acquaintance spied me and stepped away from a couple other guys as I approached the coffee area. He started right in seeking to confirm my views would support his own regarding the aforementioned subject.
It was but a minute or so before I realized I might as well walk out back into the woods and talk to a squirrel. I recall my final statement. “I don’t care what color he is. If it matters to you, that makes you the racist.” As I watched his departing backside heading for the door, I recall a feeling of mild surprise with just a touch of sadness. The man had appeared relatively normal until the topic turned political.
Maybe I should have profiled his car. That’s always fun, but not the clear indication it used to be. Back in the day the legendary square cornered Volvo station wagon was front and center. I can clearly recall a conversation between two such owners. One said, “we had to put almost four hundred dollars in our old girl last month, but she’s fine now.” “Four hundred?” said the other, “try seven hundred with ours.” Understand these people were not really complaining, but exchanging self-flagellative views regarding the opportunity to keep their cars on the road no matter the sacrifice. It was a badge of dedication, of courage, of sacred honor. At the time I almost said, “you morons! That’s what you get for buying a car made in a socialist country.”
During that period I had done a mental survey of cars obviously broken down beside the road. Volvos had far outstripped their actual percentage on the highway. But I had said nothing. We were all gathered for parents night at our offsprings’ prep school. It would have accomplished nothing. Plus, my wife would have gone berserk.
Leaving No Doubt
Some liberals revel in leaving no doubt as to who they are. These are the ones who have tripped face first over reality more than once and they are fighting back. They’re in too deep to let go. They are hard core. Often stern faced, they tend to look only forward in the direction they are going as if not wanting to see another unwelcome mental challenge advancing on their flank. You won’t have to profile their cars. Their signs are plastered in plain sight. Have you ever noticed how liberal bumper stickers seem to be giving orders? TOLERANCE, COEXIST, and my personal favorite, NOBODY GETS TWO BEFORE EVERYBODY HAS ONE. Somehow the dank breath of pure evil seems a little closer when I see one of those. These are but a few examples. As to the first two, these people will tolerate only those who agree with them and would coexist with the devil himself before they would knowingly smile at a conservative.
However, I must admit to having a bumper sticker of my own and had copies printed a few years ago. It’s on the back of my vehicles. Just that, nothing else. On two lines in red, white and blue it states CHARTER MEMBER, VAST RIGHT WING CONSPIRACY.
A practicing liberal will resist displaying a sense of humor in public. Such momentary lapses of control are far too dangerous and are best reserved for the seclusion of their peers. Yet, for all their deep-rooted contradictions, most liberals will appear as very nice people. It may just be they are not sure if you might be one of them. Regardless, beyond a generalized conversation, be aware you are on very thin ice, so unless you intentionally want to make a big splash, just keep skating.
Tragically, to a large number of Americans the words liberal and conservative still have little substantive meaning in political terms. These people blindly fail to make any real connection between politics and policy and the resulting network of rules and regulations that dictate how they live. They may be Republican or Democrat, or even independent, but only because their parents and grandparents were such and if it was good enough for them…. Many perform their civic duty. They vote, often with little appreciation for what they have done. Others do not vote and never have. Their defense is that they wish to remain above and unconnected from such a corruptive activity, their vote wouldn’t count anyway, all politicians are scum, they simply don’t have the time, or a composite of the above. Another group, even farther removed from any political stand, will tell you, “Everybody wants to do the right thing, don’t they? It will all work out in the end.”
Then there are the self-professed moderates with a capital “M.” They will claim to have considered both political sides and laboriously extracted the best ideas from each in order to formulate their opinions in that true holy grail of compromise, bipartisanship. Years ago that may have worked to some limited degree. But today? It’s simply not possible. For the vast majority of so-called moderates their claim is simply a cover for their lack of knowledge, and/or their fear of commitment. They are usually liberals in disguise. They are frauds. When confronted with the statement, “Saying you’re a moderate is just another way of declaring you are nothing,” they will briefly anger, then slither off out of sight. Moderation in the defense of liberty is not a winning strategy.
Having to contend with an intractable liberal on a frequent basis can be maddening as one’s emotions range from frustration to pity. Somewhere in the early stages of their malady every liberal has gazed wistfully off into the distance and declared, “Wouldn’t it be nice… ?” Of course, we’ve all said or thought such words at one time or another regarding a specific goal to which reasonable action could be applied to achieve the desired result. However, liberal ambitions are much loftier. “Wouldn’t it be nice if there were no poor, if everyone was happy, if there was no envy,” etc. Certainly, no lowly conservative is capable of comprehending such heights.
Liberals quickly become overwhelmed by the virtue of their objective and the sheer beauty of their thought for coming up with it. Usually it takes more than one of these epiphanies to really set the hook, but sometimes it’s just the one. Unfortunately, the evolving liberal mindset can find a myriad of burgeoning support groups ready to provide intellectual cover and tutorial kinship. Forgive me if I coin the phrase “Misery loves company.”
When poked with a stick dripping with reality they may appear bewildered at best, totally dysfunctional at worst. Liberals are in possession of a wealth of information, practically none of which is true. They cannot defend their conclusions based on logic and will not attempt to. They will, however, get haughty and supremely arrogant. They will call you names, once again the predictable reaction. It is their primary intellectual defense. From this solid footing it is but a short hop, skip, and a jump to the next step of liberal evolution, their authoritarian stage. After all, they could do so much good if only we would listen and agree. Then one day you are shocked to learn the total loon that was giving you such a hard time when they were sitting on the city planning board six months ago is now running for state Senate.
It is easy to conclude that committed liberals fall into three main categories: uninformed, stupid, or downright evil. But not so fast. Perhaps we should add a fourth category. The statement “Liberalism is a mental illness” has been floating around out there for some time. Though a cute remark, and possibly true to some degree, it leaves the listener wanting as the speaker silently acknowledges they are not a mental health professional and are simply throwing their hands up in frustration as they attempt to explain how people can become so afflicted.
The truth is much simpler, though in fact, far more serious. The process by which one becomes a full-blown liberal is merely an ever deepening, progressively more powerful addiction not unlike that of heroin or any other hard drug. There is one distinct difference. With a drug the origin of the stimulus is external. With liberalism the brain is induced to short circuit itself. In the beginning the purpose is the same. It is to feel good, your interests sharpened, your senses tuned, your purpose intensified, every minute a challenge fulfilled. In plying their way down this fraudulent shortcut to goodness and light, the evolving liberal must frequently push aside truth and reality. At first it may seem awkward, even nonsensical. But it must be done. The conscious goal is to prolong this new personal euphoria by any means necessary. It is, of course, a building moral triumph, a clear indication of one’s expanding good works. To hasten the process this mental virus branches out in all directions. There’s a new disenfranchised minority to be supported, a growing social victim class to be promoted, and always a planet to be saved. The greater good is paramount. Soon one becomes oblivious to self-corruption and any thought of personal creativity based on provable fact has all but disappeared. The greater the motive to lie, the bigger the lie will be.
Liberalism has corrupted, and in large part, all but destroyed the education system top to bottom in this country over the past two to three generations. The purpose has clearly been to manufacture its own retarded constituency already indoctrinated in the majesty of the state. The transformation has been slow, almost harmlessly gradual, yet diabolically clever in its declared innocence. Until recently the process has gone largely unnoticed by a majority of Americans. But not now. Presently a parental revolution is taking place. When finding they are up against an organizational giant they are establishing private and charter schools and even home schooling their children more than ever before.
The corruption has gone far beyond the curriculum itself. Indeed, the curriculum, or lack of it, has become of secondary importance. School culture is primary in influencing young people in ways one would never suspect. The following is but one example:
You are an eighth grader. This morning two young girls were struck on a crosswalk while on their way to school. One was killed instantly, the other remains in critical condition. Everything has come to a stop. Unfamiliar, grim-faced adults are seen roaming the school hallways. You are told they are grief counselors down from the state capital. So far you have managed to avoid them. Everyone is very uncomfortable. Later, at dusk you and a couple of friends find yourselves at the scene of the accident. The crowd of students, together with many older people, is getting larger by the minute. One of your friends has begun to cry as she clutches a large bouquet of flowers. A memorial of carefully placed items is rising from the sub-lawn next to the street and overflowing onto the private property beyond the sidewalk. A tribute of flowers, photos, candles in glass containers among other unrecognizable items is increasing in size before your eyes. It seems almost a living thing. You find yourself being slowly swept closer to the glowing light.
Your friend withdraws a couple flowers from her bouquet and extends them toward you. Reaching to take them you glance toward the trim appearing home scarcely fifty feet away. An elderly couple standing close together peer out of the dimly lit picture window, their solemn faces bathed in the candlelight. They almost appear as prisoners. The swelling crowd doesn’t notice them as its numbers slowly advance onto their lawn. Near the memorial you look down at a large photo, obviously of the two victims. They were in the grade ahead of you. You seem to recognize one of them, the other not at all. You kneel to place your flowers next to the photo atop those already there. Somehow you sense a vague feeling of guilt. As you rise a girl several years your senior has waited to embrace you. An Older sister maybe? You notice the tears as her face passes over your shoulder, her arms encircling you. “Thank you for coming. Dorothy loved you all so much.” Then she is gone to greet another and you are alone.
Somehow, the realization that the second girl has just passed away from her injuries is filtering through the throng. All at once the tears are streaming down your face. You find yourself inhaling the sadness, the grief of all those present. It is overwhelming. You move slowly away as if in a trance. One of your friends takes your arm. You recall something one of your teachers is always saying. “How you feel is everything….” In a way it is all perversely satisfying. You did not know either one of these girls, yet you can feel all of this? Maybe you are a better person than you ever imagined. Maybe…. Then you remember something your grandmother would say on occasion when you were little. Lowering her voice slightly she would say, “It’s the thought that counts.”
So how long has this been going on? A generation? Two? I dare say, at this point in time, a significant number of people, never having had the occasion to uncover any underlying motives, might freely state that there is nothing at all wrong here. In fact, they might say, it’s even laudable that so many can experience compassion in the face of such tragedy. Yet on further contemplation they might also admit that something just doesn’t feel right.
The aforementioned memorial was high profile. It will be renewed and attended to. It will remain there for weeks, probably months, maybe longer. We see the highway dotted with lesser examples, usually a cross is the centerpiece, possibly not so much for its Christian connection, but because it is the single religious symbol a private property owner may still hesitate to remove.
Fifty, sixty years ago did we see this? Did people care less then than they do now about having lost a loved one? I think not. Family and close friends grieved privately. Those farther away from this periphery sent a sympathy card. Now, however, we see this compulsion to memorialize the exact place where one has died to consciously or otherwise highjack a personal tragedy for themselves. It has been claimed by the masses, the vast majority of whom have no connection to the victim. They will use it to prove to themselves and illustrate to us all that their goodness and caring knows no bounds. How many candle light vigils do you suppose are planned across the country for this very evening?
The young lady related to previously has received a significant push toward a dark place where nothing is as it seems. True, she may wake up to reality in a year or ten, but unless she has some outside influences who are paying attention, it is not likely.
For the most part, liberals abhor long honored cultural standards. It is far easier to guide and control segments of society who are encouraged to operate outside the norm than it is to face a united front. Liberals will not speak of patriotism unless compelled to do so as it is a force that can bring people together as little else can. Religion, another example, unless segments can be splintered away as a detriment to the whole. And always, “the race issue” is there to separate people into smaller groups more easily targeted.
Liberal aspirations are extremely well funded. As personal fortunes grow, or more frequently have been amassed and secured over past generations, a feeling of guilt may ensue and “the movement” is freely supported.
Not the specific social cause itself, you understand, the bulk of that money of course, comes from you, the taxpayer. It is to create and promote the political structure that will take it from you. In doing so you are reduced financially to a level where you can be more easily controlled, a perfect example of the two-bird theory.
Yet other liberals are found to have not proceeded all the way down that slimy slope to fully embrace their ideological tenets. They observe and support most liberal trappings, but have successfully compartmentalized their personal finances away from their politics and out of public view. You will never hear of their wealth.
Liberals thrive on corrupting the language, in changing the meaning of words or inventing new ones to help establish their agenda all the while confusing those not paying attention. If you look up the meaning of the word liberalism in a dictionary published during the middle of the last century you will find quite a different meaning than today. Going back another fifty years, the word was progressive, an overreaching big government structure brought to the fore by Teddy Roosevelt and further honed by Woodrow Wilson. As some leading proponents of “the cause” were forced to set aside some of their truly twisted ideas, the term faded somewhat, but the movement continued simply as a path to control.
The same is true today as the current administration has gleefully taken a big wet gooey crap in the middle of traditional American consciousness. Liberals love the stench. After all, it is the “new normal” stench. Currently they are trying to place us all into protective custody – accent on custody. Liberalism is of course, the true seat of power.
Even the once disgraced term progressive is coming back into view. Some liberals simply want another place to hide and operate from, others just don’t give a damn and welcome their traditional mantle as they seem to believe total control is now inevitable. A guy I know to be a political neophyte, but otherwise very bright, once announced to me that he was a progressive. I nearly laughed in his face, but on careful questioning it turned out he simply associated the term with the word “progress.” “Hell, everyone should be for progress, shouldn’t they?” he had asked, and so that was where he felt safe making his political bed.
Though you will hear differently, the conservative right wing in America remains pretty much where it always has been, constitutionally based, pro individual liberty, keep government unnecessarily off my back and out of my pocket. It is the left that has drastically moved, consuming the entire Democrat Party and falling right off the edge of the political table. Unfortunately, most of the Republican hierarchy has followed along with it. Oh, they may talk a good game from time to time, but when it comes right down to it, they consider their divine position that of bending over in front of Democrats. It’s hardly a surprise to learn that all of one party and a majority of the other, upon leaving through their respective chamber doors, arrive in the bed of their one supreme political mistress, The Washington Establishment.
The monumental thirst for power laced with the staggering arrogance of this administration is already historic. The corruption, the scandals, the in-your-face lawlessness become legendary as days pass. Usually such conclusions, any conclusions, arrive after a long retrospective as historians carefully consider the narrative employed to record how a past presidency will be remembered. Not so this time. It’s just not necessary. The truth is fast becoming painfully obvious to almost anyone who opens their eyes in the morning. This latest health care disaster is nothing less than an all-out attack on the very lives of the people of this country. No longer can intentionally disengaged citizens remain blissfully unaware of political matters after they realize their government is coming to get them.
An ever-increasing number of those in power can begin to see it all slipping away. Their demeanor ranges from terrified to ambivalent to still blindly confident as they stack even bigger lies atop the pile of those already there. They are desperate to shore up what’s left and regain their high ground. They are convinced that the American Socialist Republic is just around the corner and they dream of snuggling deep within the protective lair of this beast they are creating.
I have heard some conservative pundits suggest that liberalism is nearing the end of its current life cycle and shall simply fade into some pastel background before a steady onslaught of pure reason. I can’t imagine that many of them actually believe it. And neither should you. Liberals will never go away. They will press on. They recognize no other option. The worst is probably yet to come.
