Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire The real battle lies elsewhere

I have worn myself out pondering, and reading, and writing about these issues over the past several weeks. I was so exhausted that as I drove up to the ER I'm working this weekend this evening I punched up some music I only listen to during the Christmas/Advent season: Handel's Messiah.

As I drove I let the music and the lyrics have their way with me, not thinking, just feeling... and my worries melted away when I heard the movement (Part II, Scene 6), "Why do the nations rage?" Sung by the bass soloist, which is of course taken from Psalm 2:

1 Why are the nations in an uproar? And why do the peoples mutter in vain?
2 The kings of the earth stand up, and the rulers take counsel together, against the LORD, and against His anointed:
3 'Let us break their bands asunder, and cast away their cords from us.'
4 He that sitteth in heaven laugheth, the Lord hath them in derision.
5 Then will He speak unto them in His wrath, and affright them in His sore displeasure:
6 'Truly it is I that have established My king upon Zion, My holy mountain.'
7 I will tell of the decree: the LORD said unto me: 'Thou art My son, this day have I begotten thee.
8 Ask of Me, and I will give the nations for thine inheritance, and the ends of the earth for thy possession.
9 Thou shalt break them with a rod of iron; thou shalt dash them in pieces like a potter's vessel.'
10 Now therefore, O ye kings, be wise; be admonished, ye judges of the earth.
11 Serve the LORD with fear, and rejoice with trembling.
12 Do homage in purity, lest He be angry, and ye perish in the way, when suddenly His wrath is kindled.
Happy are all they that take refuge in Him.

It seems prophetic to me at this time in history, and a great comfort. YMMV.

This.

Anti American, socialist indoctrination in the public schools that we conservatives pay for shapes kids to think like democrats and turn them against our foundational principles by the time they become voters. The media and entertainment reinforce the same message.

Winning hearts and minds to conservative ideas is very hard when the young have already been programmed against us.

We need to take the schools back. We need to take local and state governments back.

We also need to understand that this is not about politics as usual. Destroying the ability of the leftists to oppose conservative principles, as they are doing to us, is the only way we will re-establish a constitutional republic.

Well said Doc. A lot of good writing in this thread by realists who understand the tactics of the left. The Dems are effective with these tactics and they keep pushing them.

Early in my post-military professional career I assumed that doing good work and being effective to get the work done would be enough to get recognized and promoted. A senior company engineer I had a lot of respect for pulled me aside and corrected my impressions. While you MUST do good work and make a difference, you also must ensure that the relevant people (in my case program directors, in the case of the electoral body that 20% in the middle) see that good work and understand your potential.

It is not bragging, it is not self-grandizing, it is ensuring that your good work gets recognized and you are advanced to a place where you can have greater influence and can more effectively make change towards the best ideas.

It's no different in the world of politics. If we as conservatives, and that is a big group, don't get that 20% to understand that they are better off with conservatives in the leadership posts and get us there then we're stuck with no influence.

There is a significant part of the Campfire that believe (loudly!) that unless you subscribe to every single conservative principle then you're a liberal. It is that ilk that will sink us. We need ALL non-hard core liberals in our tent to be successful. We all have hot button conservative issues we believe in, and most of us have a few, and then there are some issues that most of us frankly either don't care much about or (gasp!) have even what some would call liberal leanings towards.

As an example, I was at my dentist last month for a crown. I asked him how some of the small business fee and bureaucracy reductions under our new Republican Governor had affected his business. He said there wasn't much of an effect to his bottom line but that he really appreciated the efforts by the governor to make the burden less and that there were some really good things on the way. Now, he admitted he's a liberal Marylander and has been his whole life but he commented "You know, with understanding like this about how important businesses like ours are and how hard the government makes it to run them, the Republicans may well be the answer because Martin O'Malley sure wasn't"

If you live in Texas or Idaho you would look at our Governor Hogan and say "he's no conservative" but the reality is that he got elected by tempering his desire for a much greater amount of conservatism with the realities of trying to be only the 2nd Republican Governor in MD since Spiro Agnew and he succeeded. Now that he is in, even with an overwhelming Dem majority in the legislature, he is able to make changes that move the state more to the center and eventually to the right. Maryland will never be as conservative as our deep red states but we should take the win as we can.

I will vote in the primary for who I think is the best candidate to beat Hillary. I suspect it's not truly who I align with the best but if they do not get elected then we have zero ability to influence the game. Whomever it is, the media in all it's forms will be against them and we need to get that middle 20% to win so making sure the message is clear, articulate and inclusive is going to be critical.

If a man believes that there is a God that takes an interest in human affairs, he should vote his conscience and accept the election results.

If he has doubts about God's interest... then he should engage in the game of politics.

So true


You get it!!!

Satan does his best work by convincing people that he doesn't exist. He's tearing apart the morality of this country while convincing them that's he's not there.

Pugs, Hatari... why is it that I find myself always agreeing with you two miscreants?

I want you to compromise your conscience and every principle of God and man you believe in, if that's what it takes to keep Hilary out of the White House.

Miles: C.S.Lewis covered this ground better than anyone, ever, in his books. Particularly The crewtape Letters and Mere Christianity. He ably pointed out that the atheist must hold to a position of extreme illogicality: to disbelieve in God, yet to hate Him at the same time. He does this in order to justify his overthrow of moral absolutes (ideas of right and wrong).

The only way modern socialism and leftism can exist is in a moral vacuum, and a moral vacuum can only exist if the idea that ALL religions are based upon--i.e., that God established what is right and what is wrong, and there's no arguing with God, since he created the universe--is torn down.

I find it interesting that so many leftists deny the personal reality of God, yet they believe in occult powers. This is as ridiculous as believing that darkness exists, but that light doesn't. Insane.

Voting FOR the person who ends up on the ballot opposite her seems like the best strategy.

You got something else?

Get god out of politics..

Then get public funded elections..

yeah, we need to do something. right now, the left nor right is being pleased with the system.

nor are the independents & libertarians who walk amongst us.

the high=end elites from all quadrants who can afford to donate millions to buy their point of view seem to enjoy it quite well, and are very satisfied with it. maybe that's why we haven't been able to change things?

No, Old Trapper. We (conservatives) just don't have a plan yet. Maybe this link would suffice until a better one comes along.

Warning, what follows in the link is delightfully long and makes incredibly good sense.......

https://www.chroniclesmagazine.org/defeating-domestic-jihad-a-program-of-action/

thanks for the read, it's enlightening.

it does sound like a kind of evolution to me. i kinda commissurate with the native americans when the europeans came ashore with their ideology, technology, and enhanced ability to adapt to the environment.

fighting ideologies is a tough business. it's like looking at a stump, and seeing the various fungal colonies becoming established there. over a period of years, some colonies advance, and some colonies get walled off.

ultimately the stump is consumed, but the exact winning fungi is difficult to define. a lot of them played an important role in the process.

ideology vs. ideology, what a concept.

i hope i never have to kill another five-fingered human because of his ideology?

I very much enjoyed this article and see it as full of good info and ideas, however my comments were about conservatism, in general.

Yes, I understood that also. The very nature of conservatism is to persuade with ideas. Liberals take a much more direct approach; persuasion with dollars i.e., does the idea spend well at the supermarket? Tough to win over hearts and minds on something that puts no jingle in your jeans (today).

Good article.