By Braden Cook, Guest Columnist
Conservativism is on the rise. It is not (unfortunately) because Republicans have discovered a new style of rhetoric, nor is this rise due to a sudden conservative swing in the general culture. It is due to one political party in particular which continues to over play its hand and continues to push for leftist policies outside the mainstream.
This tactical error leaves many moderate Americans defending the status quo as opposed to the extreme change pursued by the Democratic party.
These moderate Americans do not necessarily agree with generic Conservatives on extreme limitations on abortion, zealous support of the 2nd Amendment, or major reductions in spending on federal welfare system.
They most certainly do not prefer Donald Trump to be the Republican nominee for president in 2024. These moderate Republicans, Democrats, and Independents do agree on a few fundamentals that are ignored by the Democratic leaders in power today.
Moderates agree with Conservatives when they argue parents should have a say in what their public schools are teaching and how they are being run. The 2021 state elections in Virginia are a prime example.
The Democratic-leaning state voted overwhelmingly Republican after leftist school policy failures were exposed. This led to the election of a Republican governor, lieutenant governor, attorney general and new members to the Virginia General Assembly, giving Republicans control of the state government.
And this is just one example of one issue. Moderates also do not support green energy policies of the sort Democrats pursue, which cause energy prices to rise, gas prices to go up and Democratic donations from green energy companies to increase (what a coincidence).
Moderates also still believe that men and women exist and genes determine this biological fact, not the feelings within the mind; they believe that people should be judged by the content of their character and not by the color of their skin, as Martin Luther King Jr. said, as opposed to the leftist idea of privileged treatment of one “group” of people over another to “right” past injustice that can never be changed; and finally, the majority of moderates side with conservatives in their belief that the principles on which this country was founded are good and true and have led to the great prosperity it continues to allow even today in a time of inflation, war and recession.
— Braeden Cook is the president of the Northwestern College Republicans Club.