No matter the ideology, you will run
into purists who try to say who can wear the label and who can't.
I've personally run across that with upper case Libertarians, those
who belong to the party and claim to be purists. I've been told I'm
not libertarian because I believe differently on a few issues.
It seems, daily, I find anarchists who
sometimes carry the Libertarian label. On a given day I'll find an
anarchist who claims to be a progressive. I watch as people who all
carry the same label, arguing over some issue.
This
week on television, social media
and conservative celebrity, Tomi Lahren was on the ABC show The View.
There she made the statement that she was pro-choice on abortion.
The next day there were conservatives in lengthy articles calling for
her firing. Conservatives have condemned progressives for calling
for the firing of people based on speech. To do the same is clearly
hypocrisy. Tomi was suspended this week by her boss, Glenn Beck,
who has himself complained about progressives doing the same thing.
Free speech is clearly dead on Glenn's conservative network.
Each day, many hours are spend debating
abortion. We learn that not all conservatives agree on all the
terms associated with abortion. Pro-choice can mean supporting all
abortions, or just those concerning rape and incest. Some pro-choice
people say abortion is fine in the first eight weeks only. All those
beliefs fall within the context of conservatism, yet the purists
want those conservatives fired or abandoned.
People often wear their labels with
pride. Sometimes those labels are worn as if they are a religion.
Sometimes people claim those labels as a result of religion. In all
cases we find people who cling to their label with a certain amount
of fanaticism. It is this fanaticism that's dangerous. Fanaticism is
especially dangerous when it is applied to politics. That fanaticism
will be used to take rights from certain citizens.
Recently in the news, we are hearing
about schools that are installing prayer rooms for Muslims. Schools
are often run by progressives. For decades, Democrats and
progressives have fought a long battle to keep religion out of
schools. It seems they have made an abrupt turnabout to accommodate
the Islamic religion. Do all progressives agree with this decision?
I'd dare say a large portion do. This is an example of how a label is
more about collective thinking than a true belief.
The progressive label is part of a
movement that believes police are hunting down and killing minority
Americans. We know there are some bad cops, but the majority are good
people wanting to serve their community. Because of the belief
that police are hunting down blacks, a pro football player refused to
stand for the National Anthem, the anthem that gives allegiance to
the country that allowed this man to rise above poverty to earn
millions of dollars. False rhetoric led to this protest and as a
result of that protest the football player might have ended his
professional career.
During the 2016 election a group of
conservatives came to be known as Never Trump. They wrote and shouted
that Donald J. Trump wasn't a conservative and shouldn't be
president. I became sure they preferred Hillary over Trump. Since the
election they have not stopped their Never Trump campaign, despite
the fact that Trump has acted more conservative than any past
president, possibly, including the conservative hero, Ronald Reagan.
In this case, this group of conservatives seem to be guided by hate
more than ideology. Some of these same Never Trump people are
attacking Tomi Lahren for her view on abortion, while hypocritically
claiming they are the guardians of conservatism.
We are finding today there are three
labels that are essentially calling for an end to the United States
of America. Anarchists, progressives, Libertarians—note upper case
L—are for open borders. They believe everyone has a right to enter
this country even if those people want to destroy the country. Twice
progressive judges have ruled that the president of the USA no longer
has say over immigration. Those judges have struck down moratoriums
on immigration from five countries. Those judges also say we must let
anyone into the country claiming to be a refugee.
Those judges are suppose to look at
only the law and the Constitution of the United States. Because of
the label they have sworn allegiance to, they choose to ignore the
laws and Constitution of this country. In both, it's clear the
federal government is in charge of immigration. A law passed by
Congress assigns that power directly to the president, not the
governor of a state. Labels that have for decades fought for federal
power, now preach states rights because they want open borders.
Everything above is a result of labels.
Labeling is necessary in our world. We wouldn’t know the red fruit
hanging from the tree is an apple if not for the label. Sometimes
even fruit can be so much a hybrid of something else that the label
no longer applies. How do we know when political labels no longer
apply? We don't. People are free to choose whatever label they want
to wear. For this reason we shouldn't assume a person has a set
belief simply because they wear a certain label. The only label for
which I can be sure when ask what am I, is—I am me. I believe what
I believe. Label me as you wish, but I will forever have my own
beliefs.
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