It’s becoming rather obvious that America’s political “Left” and elites everywhere — both preoccupied with hate (speech, etc.) within the populace — are feeling just that toward religious conservatives.
Why is this?
Most American religious conservatives are Christian, but hatred for them seems not to be about religion in general nor Christianity in particular. And the hatred also seems not about conservative politics per se.
So, what is it about?
Well, it appears to boil down to hatred for independent personal agency in selecting one’s own values to live by and directing one’s own life via reasoned thought and efficacious productivity. Indeed, it is these very responsible attributes that (since the 15th-century) have been incorporated into the moral-ethical center of the Christian religion. The information in the linked essay, here, is important for (especially) Christians to know because it explains a mostly unknown chapter of history regarding the balance of faith and reason in this singular religion: How Conservatives Reconcile Bible-Bound and Constitution-Respecting Worldviews
Once the faith-reason harmony is understood, then it follows logically that Christian conservatives tend to be entrepreneurial small business people like farmers, “Mom and Pop”-shop and franchise owners, private contractors like attorneys and architects, and hands-on tradespeople like construction builders and property managers.
These usually pleasant, creative, and energetic folks by temperamental inclination and desire for autonomy tend to enjoy the challenges of thinking for themselves, devising their own style of labor, succeeding in specifically-chosen endeavors, taking pride in achievements, employing independent judgment at work and play, and providing adequate sustenance for their families. If they are not owners of businesses themselves, they tend to find respectable, productive, and satisfying work provided by others who appreciate their talents and contributions to their entrepreneurial endeavors. They all tend to value property ownership because they have earned it.
We can, from a political point of view relating to our subject of hatred, place these autonomous individuals economically in the middle class of American citizens who, providing for themselves by their own skills and judgment, resist regulations and laws that interfere with or hamper their own individual decisions and activities. They also tend to respect the objective laws and individual rights as specified in the United States Constitution and Bill of Rights; hence, their “conservatism.”
Such independent souls neither victimize others nor view themselves as victims regardless of personal economic or social status. Yet they have become a festering sore in the sides of both those who would victimize others (the elites by edict) and those who consider themselves victims (welfare recipients dependent on tax-payer-funded public dole) because they are proud traders. Their goods and/or services are traded for money received from others who wish to purchase their goods or services. This voluntary trading procedure is called “capitalism,” the only economic system that works equally well for and protects the individual rights of all people without coercion from some form of governmental dictate such as communism, fascism, socialism, progressivism, or collectivism of any mixed combination.
Ergo: fundamentally, it is this very free enterprise system that both elites and parasites wish to destroy, which explains why they hate conservatives who wish to preserve it. It’s middleclass individuals who stand in the way of the other two opposites’ symbiotic wishes by fact of their independence from either — the power-wielding elites to control others or the give-me-addicts to take the earned fruits of productive others by way of the elites (taxation and laws). Karl Marx was the first to philosophically-psychologically conceptualize this class warfare notion, and Lenin verbalized it thus: “The way to crush the bourgeoisie (middle class) is to grind them between the millstones of taxation and inflation.”
Lenin’s plan is exactly what’s happening today in America: increasing-by-leaps-and-bounds federal, state, and local taxation in all its unfathomable forms (add-ons, hidden charges, energy penalties, etc.) and soaring inflation caused by outrageous government spending (denied by politicians but foolproof in grocery bills). Small businesses are closing by an alarming number often precipitated by the Left’s thugs who burn and plunder them with no repercussions; more and more young people are obtaining (often via taxpayer-funded loans) meaningless college degrees; shortages of skilled laborers like plumbers and welders are ubiquitous; colossal federal debt is rising to unmaintainable degrees. ... The list of middleclass financial destructions is endless. America truly is becoming Saul Alinsky’s dream of “Haves” (empowered authoritarian elites) and “Have-nots” (dependent/obedient takers). Add to that the multi-millions of illegal migrants who exist entirely on tax-payer dollars but demand “better” (more expensive) housing along with food, phones, healthcare, and child-education.
Additionally, middleclass Americans are being betrayed by so-called “conservative” but in fact “elite” legislators. Too many Republicans are Leftist wolves in the “Right” sheep’s clothing, and middleclass Americans must expose and vote these tricksters at all levels out of office.
What else must be done by Americans who support freedom and self-reliance? They must speak up for their values. Not religious values which should remain personal but political values, the rights that protect and preserve their personal freedoms and the ability to provide for themselves and their families without government interference.
The hour is late. Power-hungry Elites and ever-“needy”-takers increase unchecked. If self-respecting-self-reliant Americans do not speak up and stand up to those who would destroy their independence directly (regulations-mandates) or bleed them to death (taxation-inflation), then they will have cooperated in their own demise. The law-abiding-liberty-loving and productive but fast-shrinking middle class is the only portion of today’s citizenry that can prevent the annihilation of America as a free country.
Conservative Christians make up the largest portion of this class. Certainly, they can (and must) practice their religion privately without infringing on the rights of others who differ, but they also must now publicly fight to preserve America’s historically innovative heritage of individual independence, self-motivated industry, and self-sufficiency to preserve the only country that was created on these very principles. Let’s make it explicit: Prayers and faith cannot save freedom. Reason, resistance, voices, and action — in massive numbers all across America — will.
Alexandra York is an author and founding president of the American Renaissance for the Twenty-first Century (ART) a New-York-City-based nonprofit educational arts and culture foundation. She has written for many publications, including "Reader's Digest" and The New York Times. She is the author of "Crosspoints A Novel of Choice." Her most recent book is "Soul Celebrations and Spiritual Snacks." For more on Alexandra York — Go Here Now.