The Millennial Struggle for America
If you are a liberal, progressive, millennial. This is probably going to piss you off. All I ask is that you read it with an open mind. If you’re skeptical of what I’m about to say and are looking for further detail, evidence, and examples, I will be writing plenty of that in the near future. Follow me and my publication on Medium. You won’t be disappointed.
My name is Ken. I’m 24 years old, and I’m a conservative. As a millennial in today’s world, I, along with my family, my fiancé, and her family often feel overwhelmed and hopeless when faced with the reality that the youth of our nation are succumbing more and more to the progressive agenda that seems to be overtaking America. Liberalism and progressivism are not the bastions of hope and compassion as they are made out to be. Their policies continually undermine us as a society and accomplish the opposite of what they purport to accomplish. Millennials are quickly becoming the dominant generation in this country, but we have to start taking an educated, evidence-based, rational look at the world around us and the policies that are shaping our country if we want to make this country an amazing place for our future generations.
Progressivism and leftism, while claiming to be the way forward, are systematically destroying our society.
The simple fact is that the left has grasped the concept of using technology, along with emotional appeal and the psychology inherent in the millennial generation, to win over today’s youth in fighting for causes that align with their goals of ruling over our country. They have realized the desire of millennials to follow their dreams and be revolutionary, and used that to trick us into taking away the freedoms of the people and enacting a regime that wants to empower overarching government while simultaneously taking away the power of the individual. The twisted irony of it all is that they do it while convincing us that we are helping the country move towards greatness and advancement.
This fault in the thought process of the millennial generation is at the same time our great strength and our great weakness. We seek to change the world. We seek to uplift humanity to a greater state of being. We seek to obliterate the status quo and revolutionize the country and the world. Yet while we are pursuing these lofty ambitions, the very same values that allow us to pursue these grand aspirations are being ripped out from under us, and we ourselves are responsible. We may not be the ones directly responsible for making the decisions and implementing the policies, but we have allowed the corrupt leaders of the left to manipulate us into thinking we are saving the world while they systematically take away our freedoms and undermine the values and principles that American was built on. Just because we aren’t creating the policies doesn’t mean we aren’t at least partly responsible for what is happening. It is up to us to think for ourselves, do our own research, and make our own decisions about what we want for America. It’s time for us to realize the irony of the fact that somehow our generation is fighting for the same things that we are destroying.
We advocate that people should be free to do and feel whatever they please, while we stamp out anybody who disagrees with our new ’tolerant’ ideals. Our priorities are so backwards and idealistic that they are completely absent any notion of reality. The insidious accomplishment of the left is that they have convinced my generation to believe that we are making America a better, more advanced, more progressive, and more accepting place, while we ironically transform it into the very same totalitarian regime that America was created to escape from.
Liberal and progressive influencers have done an incredible job of infiltrating the youth of America by indoctrinating us into thinking that in order to make the world a better place, we must cast aside our ‘American Exceptionalism’ and realize that we are a flawed country, founded by the act of committing genocide, built on the backs of slaves, and run by a class of selfish, criminal billionaires that seek to exploit hard working American citizens. The only way to help America recover from our stained past is to reinvent it, let the government do its job and provide for its citizens, enact social change so that all citizens can be equal no matter their past or their current status in the world. Regardless of the wicked millionaires and billionaires that take advantage of the poor to line their own pockets, the intolerant, bigoted Christians that refuse to accept sexual freedoms and human nature and relentlessly cast judgement on people for simply being different, the racist Tea Baggers that continue to stoke the flames of hatred, America will continue to move forward and persevere through these outdated, regressive traditions that were created in a different time. We have advanced beyond even the great advancements of the Industrial Revolution into the Information Age, where we are more intelligent and forward-thinking than we have ever been. America is moving beyond outdated traditional values into a more evolved, intelligent society. At least that is what my generation is supposed to believe.
But don’t be fooled.
Modern day liberals and progressives will be quick to call me a die-hard, conservative, right wing nut job conspiracy theorist that has drunk the Kool-Aid of rich corporate drones that seek to squeeze every cent they can out of ordinary, hard-working Americans. I’ve been brainwashed by Christians into believing a silly book that is completely outdated and I am clearly incapable of thinking for myself. They’ll most likely use the often recited rhetoric about conservatives being closed minded, regressive, bigots that don’t possess the intellectual capacity to grasp the concept of the ideologies that the all-powerful, Oz-like progressives are spewing out to my peers. The part that really saddens me is that they have convinced my generation that this embrace of regulation and hatred and silencing of all who oppose you is the American way. Not only that, but they have somehow convinced my fellow millennials that we aren’t doing the exact same thing when we decide that somebody is a hateful, arrogant monster when they have a different belief system. They have taken the ideals that America was founded on and perverted and twisted them to suit their own political agendas. They have used technology, emotions, and the ingrained desire of the millennial generation to have an impact on the world and follow their dreams to enact their own selfish schemes to transform this country from a superpower founded on the ideals of small government and the freedom and power of the individual into just another place on the world map. They’re steadily transforming it into a society based on the idea of the common good, which my fellow millennials haven’t seemed to grasp is simply a nice way of saying everybody should do and believe the exact same thing and if you don’t, then we’ll force you to.
What the left doesn’t realize is that there are young conservatives and libertarians that are willing to fight back, and there are open minded progressives who are beginning to question the status quo of their generation. There are still young people that know what American was built on and know what it is turning into. We have not retreated into the solace of our quips and moans to our family and friends. We have not succumbed to this progressive ideal of what America should be. We have not listened to the weasels and tricksters that seek to manipulate the American people into believing that the foundation of this once great country was based on evil, and the only way to save it is to advance beyond ‘old world’ ideals. We have not fallen victim to the Obama Administration’s efforts to stoke the fires of racism and hatred and tear our country apart by blaming the country itself for being so evil. We refuse to accept handouts and undermine the foundational philosophy that hard work and perseverance are what can lift an individual to greatness, and in turn lift a country as a whole up to greatness.
America, you have not lost your youth. Do not lose faith in the millennial generation. We have not all lost our way. We have not all become victims to the destructive ideologies of progressivism. There is still hope in the generation that will inherit this country. But we can’t do it alone.
Conservatives have to embrace the way that technology has impacted our world, and we must embrace the fact that emotional appeal is vastly more effective at getting millennials to join a cause than long-winded logic is. The benefit of conservatism is that we happen to have logic and facts to back up our emotional triggers. The immediate reaction and passion that comes with a strong emotional trigger combined with the foundation of logic is a powerful thing, something that we as conservatives need to start using.
The left has done a tremendous job of luring the youth of America into their self-serving causes. Our first task is to simply get the youth to listen to the conservative side of things. Unfortunately, the left has done their work well on this front too. Part of the reason this is going to be so difficult is that the left simply refuses to listen to arguments that oppose theirs, even if the facts are directly in front of them.
The media and the big players and influencers on the left have convinced much of my generation that they are free thinkers that go against the status quo to rise up and revolutionize the way that American runs. They’ve convinced them that they are the enlightened ones while they surround themselves in a bubble so that anytime someone presents an opposing opinion, they are simply shut down, usually accompanied by the words racist or bigot. You can’t lose a debate if you prevent the debate from occurring in the first place.
But I see this as a good thing for young conservatives. When you aren’t trapped in an ideological bubble, you are forced to think on your beliefs, confront challenges to them, research the facts that back up your beliefs, and ultimately become a competent, knowledgeable person that is able to defend your beliefs. Young progressives, by eliminating any possibility of confrontation, debate or challenging of their ideals, are losing this ability, which means they are digging themselves into a hole. The problem with creating an army of drones that regurgitates every ideological, feel good theory you throw at them, is that eventually the people that put these theories in their head will no longer have influence, and when that day comes, they will have nothing to stand on.
But we can’t simply sit back and wait for that to happen, that is what the left is counting on. We, as young conservatives, need to educate ourselves and have the courage to stand up for what we believe in. We learned in elementary school that the only way to stand up to a bully is to face them head on, accept the fact that you might take a few hits, and fight for yourself and your principles. We are losing our country to not only a totalitarian Democratic ruling class, but spineless Republican leadership that is too afraid to stand up for the principles of this country. We can’t sit around and hope that our Republican political leaders will save us, because they clearly will not.
We are Americans, defined by the idea that the power to create a more perfect union lies within the people, not the government. That means it is up to us to reclaim America and fight for what it stands for. If we simply sit back and watch this all happen, it is not a question of if, but when we will lose this great nation.
There are tactics we can learn from the left without stooping to their level. Their use of the Internet, the media and their ability to cause an emotional disturbance in the youth of America are unparalleled. If we ever hope to stand a chance of showing American youth how they are being lied to and used, we need to start utilizing these tools. Unfortunately, mainstream media has been almost completely taken over by liberals, but that is where the power of the Internet comes into play. This incredible tool is not only used obsessively by my generation, but allows anyone with something to say to reach people all over the world, near instantaneously. This is a powerful tool that our side needs to start utilizing more.
America is going to be inherited by the millennial generation, that is a fact and there is nothing we can do about it, but we can do something to influence that generation and disrupt the flawed sense of America that has been instilled on our youth.
As a conservative millennial, I am calling on all of the people that believe in preserving the true values of America. I am calling on the conservatives who have written off my generation as a lost cause. I am calling on the conservative media, and the few conservative people in the tech industry who have the unprecedented power to influence what direction our country is headed in this modern information age.
We can’t simply sit back and complain and shout about how our country is being ruined. We have to take action. No longer can we stand idly by while our country is ripped out from under us. No longer can we simply watch while criminals and con artists manipulate our fellow countrymen into believing a lie. No longer can we allow the generation that will inherit this nation to be transformed into a spineless, hive-mind drone society that believes whatever the government and popular media tells it is correct.
The battle will not be easy, but since when does that stop Americans from accomplishing whatever they set their mind to? If we don’t start taking action, we are going to lose this country.
Start by educating yourself on current affairs and conservative ideologies and policies, but don’t stop there. Learn the ideologies, principles, and common arguments of the left, so that when you are inevitably presented with them, you can calmly counter and present the facts how they actually are. In the words of Sun Tzu, “Know your enemy and know yourself, and you need not fear the result of a hundred battles”. Then learn to be comfortable with confrontation, and stop being silent when your beliefs are challenged or when something you know to be false is presented as fact. If you have children that are millennials, teach them. If you are a millennial, start teaching your peers and showing them how and why modern day liberal progressive policies are wrong and misguided.
Progressive millennials, I will ask this of you: To keep an open mind, read the pieces I will publish in the future, and question what is popular within the circles of our generation.
Keep an eye on this publication, there is a lot more I have to say.
We can do this. We can save America. But we have to act. We’ve been given the gift of freedom by our founding fathers, but if we don’t fight to defend it, it will be slowly taken away from us. I’ll leave you today with the words of John Philpot Curran.
“It is the common fate of the indolent to see their rights become a prey to the active. The condition upon which God hath given liberty to man is eternal vigilance; which condition if he break, servitude is at once the consequence of his crime and the punishment of his guilt.”
