Thread by @NickJFreitas

What the hell is going on? 🧵🧵🧵

I am witnessing something on the right which I am used to seeing...on the left. Namely the speed with which people are getting cancelled or "excommunicated" over disagreements that should not rise to the level of the hostility displayed..

There is no question that there are some issues that are deal breakers. You're a socialist? You want to ban guns? Trans the kids? Raise Taxes? Allow Mass Illegal Immigration? to name a few...we are on different sides. We have diametrically opposed worldviews...

There are a variety of other questions which may be serious, but doesnt mean we are no longer on the same team or a part of the same movement. When it comes to those disagreements, I want to hear the arguments and see the evidence...

That seems a reasonable position to take, and yet, I'm watching prominent members of the right accuse people they were friends with 5 min ago of the worst of intentions and motivations over bills and strategies that if we paused for a second and took a couple minutes to consider their perspective...we might find disagreement, but probably not malice.

So what's the deal?

I've been involved in politics a while so I have seen plenty of instances where people have said one thing and done another, so I understand the betrayal that people on the right feel from many of their so called "leaders" or "representatives."

We would be fools to NOT view with skepticism people who make promises they never deliver on, or those who are never willing to take a little heat for their principles.

But that's not all that's happening...

I'm watching people turn on those who HAVE delivered. Those who HAVE taken the heat and scorn of the media, the left, the government and despite all of it have consistently stood strong at personal cost.

And why are they being attacked? Often times it's because of a strategy disagreement...or because a policy or statement was misinterpreted.

Sometimes there ARE legitimate disagreements, that need to be discussed and debated, but the nature in which the discussion takes place creates permanent divides, when only temporary ones needed to exist.

I remember the first time someone excoriated me on social media for voting a certain way. The only problem was...I didn't vote the way they were told.

They knew me well enough to know that a vote like that would have been completely out of character, but instead of asking me first, they hit send on the post.

I'm not asking anyone to trust anyone blindly...

I'm saying that when someone has demonstrated good character and commitment time after time...we shouldn't throw them overboard the first time we have a disagreement...unless of course the goal is to simply make money off the division, or to sit alone on an island complaining about why the whole world can't be as smart and virtuous as ourselves..

I have at various times agreed and disagreed with just about everyone I deeply respect within the conservative movement.

But once they have demonstrated character and consistency...before I attack, I trust but verify. I ask in private, before I accuse in public, and most importantly I stick up for those who have remained true...even if I disagree with them on a particular policy...

I have news for all of us...the only way through this fight is if we can work together with like minded people who desire a similar end state. That's the only way we win.
And we need to win...because I don't know if you've noticed, but the alternative is unacceptable.

Either way, I am going to continue fighting.

I decided a long time ago that this is my home. Too heavy a price has been paid to secure what we have in this country, and I'm not going to explain to my grandchildren or one day confess to the people who came before me, that when it was my turn to defend what their efforts had secured, I proved unwilling of their sacrifice.