Help! I’m Politically Marooned!

(This Right-Left Thing Is Killing Our Country)

Populism is one of the scariest things happening in America today. And it’s a word I don’t think is even in most people’s vocabulary.

It’s when we divide up into tribes, with polar-opposite social values.

Think of:

• The Trump Trains with pickup trucks for 50 miles and drivers wearing MAGA hats, versus

• The ferociously angry liberals screaming about how racist and sexist Trump (and “Trumpers”) are, who buy toilet paper with Trump’s face on it.

That’s populism. Two polarized camps, who hate each other, which become social clubs where a common enemy is what brings them together.

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Marxism in Utah: It Started with 26 Pages of Rules

You’re probably sick of me talking about Marxism, but cultural division is the specialty of George Soros. And families divided against themselves — every community divided — is absolutely necessary to accomplish a bloodless (or low-bloodshed) coup d’état.

(Yes, the people who want us divided actually feel righteous — proud that they don’t have to kill people to accomplish their Great Reset. Oh, and this isn’t the first “great reset” in history — not even close.)

When I began battling the lockdowns and mandates in March 2020, we were fighting for small businesses and freedom in general. We knew a vaccine was coming, and the idea of a “vaccine passport” or mandate was just a fuzzy idea we were all worried about.

But in 2020, it was the destruction of the free-market system we were protesting. In Utah, our lieutenant governor, later to become governor (despite no one I’ve ever met voting for him), issued 26 pages of tables and charts issuing hundreds of draconian new rules and restrictions — specifically directed toward small businesses. 

Ironically, it was called Utah Leads Together. (Doesn’t that sound “inclusive?”)

It was the official start of full-blown socialism in Utah. In Communism, the state owns all the means of production. In Socialism, usually a stepping stone to Communism, the state dictates all the terms of commerce.

I Organized Protests … Until We All Got Demoralized

I began holding protest after protest in Utah. Another guy in the state ran lots of rallies (which to me was like having fun parties to make new friends while the entire free-market system, and my children’s future, was burning). I appreciate his work, but “rallies” weren’t my priority.

He did rallies, and I did protests — in front of the capitol, in front of the governor’s mansion, in front of the Utah Health Department.

Eventually the bravest of the brave stood in front of the homes of health-department officials. Including in front of the home of young Utah CDC chief, Dr. Angela Dunn, who had been imported recently from California, and whose yard was full of Biden signs.

(Protesting “Dr. Dumb,” as Utah’s freedom movement called her, enraged the governor. The legislature called a special session and violated the First Amendment rights of the people, banning protests in residential areas that involved holding signs or making any noise.)

People would help me with the protests, and then get demoralized or eventually tell me they needed to attend to their work and family.

I eventually got demoralized, myself, and one of the biggest reasons is related to this content on populism:

Our Freedom Groups Splintered

The meetings run by our Pam Popper-esque “Thursday Group” leaders became right-wing gatherings. If a left-leaning or apolitical or politically moderate soccer mom showed up, she quickly recognized this wasn’t her tribe.

And even if she was “with us” standing up for small businesses and against vaccine mandates, the vibe in the group just wasn’t for her.

I can’t even count how many times people told me this. I sent a longtime holistic doctor friend of mine to a group organizing healthcare workers standing up against mandates, and she said, “That group isn’t for me; they just aren’t my kind of people.”

I moved to Florida, pretty demoralized that perhaps Utah just couldn’t come together, because they have too many internal conflicts in the freedom movement, on top of Utah culture that has been very content, their whole lives, letting “the patriarchy” call the shots.

(To this day, Utah has the healthiest economy in the country, and even a “balanced budget.” Basically, following the leader had gone pretty well for that state, at least for all outward appearances.)

But then I moved to Florida and found freedom groups here … pretty much exactly the same. 

I don’t wish to be disrespectful to anyone, because I’m deeply grateful to my strongly conservative neighbors for being, frankly, almost the only political contingency to show up and stand up for freedom!

The Freedom Fight Can’t Afford to Be So Divided

But, I’ve finally got to say it: I just don’t identify as far to the “political right” as many of my colleagues in the freedom movement.

And I don’t think I’m alone, since nationally, a very large majority of us identify as more “moderate” than “hard left” or “hard right.”

I’ve got no judgment of my more conservative friends. (I lean that direction, myself. I’ve definitely gotten clear about how politically conservative I am, the last three years.)

I loved coming together with people who actually saw the scamdemic for what it was — the trojan horse for stripping America of basic civil liberties we’d always held sacred — 

— but then someone would start calling ALL women (without exception) who’ve gotten abortions “murderers” ...  and I’d realize, with no small amount of sadness, “I really just don’t feel at home here.”

How to bridge the divide? And get “both sides of the aisle,” as they say in this permanently deadlocked Red-Blue thing, to come together and solve problems? 

(Okay, maybe it’s not an age-old problem, but it’s at least a 246-year-old problem, since 1776, in our two-party system.)

Our Brothers and Sisters in the Middle

The challenge lies with the (maybe 30%) who consider themselves “very conservative” (we’ll call them “right wing” — and hopefully nobody who identifies that way is offended) and the approximately 10% who consider themselves “hard left.” 

The “right wing” calls the “left wing” communist, and the “left wing” calls the “right wing” fascist.

And then — no different than grade-school cliques and fights — everyone stops talking to each other. 

Here’s the problem: they’re both “wings” – which leaves the other 60% of us stranded in the middle! 

I used to say I was “socially liberal but fiscally conservative,” till I figured out that there’s actually no such distinction, since government programs for every social problem cost a lot of money — and that’s fiscal.

(Also, government programs solve no social problems. Ever. They just manage them and profit from them.)

So, I found myself (having lost my 5 closest friends who hated everything I was saying and doing, when “COVID” showed up — 

— hanging out the last 2½ years, with the “right wing.” 

For the record, I’ll stand with WHOEVER will stand with me.

I mean, I’m very much in favor of the free-market system. And I think the government is totally corrupt,  and I definitely care about the right to life. I just, well, don’t feel comfortable with some of the black-white stances of the far right, like I’m a foreigner in a strange land.

Like, I’m kind of worried that if continue hanging out with the “right wing,” I’ll find myself at an abortion clinic bullying a scared 18-year-old girl in a decidedly less-than-Jesus-like manner.

Two Cliques Who Hate Each Other Can’t Solve Problems

I find the populism — the two extreme “clubs” hanging out at the two ends of the spectrum — as big a threat to what’s left of our republic as anything.

So, I don’t think that even the über-liberals who think that Daddy Government should just pay for everything (completely unaware that Daddy has no money — he can only steal it from someone to give it to someone else — which works till the ones he steals it from “go under”) are bad people. 

I don’t think they understand whatsoever that giving up all personal freedom (to be a cog in the “wheel” that is the State) results in collectivism. That’s where we’re all dependents on the state — which dictates virtually every aspect of our lives, leaving us only the illusion of choice — which has never gone well.

Frankly, as is of course true on both sides, most of the “left wing” are really good people, but unknowingly misguided. Usually they’re very idealistic and think that even though Communism has been an epic fail 75+ times, this time huge government bureaucracies will get it right. (Or, they don’t actually know what Communism is, or anything about its history.)

I don’t even disagree with the “right wing” that (since we’re using this example) the unborn have no voice, and we have to stand up for them. I just think they take it too far, sometimes.

I agree that not standing up is a huge part of our problem. I just don’t feel right about screaming at a teenager getting an abortion. I’m somewhere just short of “hard right.”

(Granted, you do have the “choice” to get an abortion — but do you have the choice to be able to afford a family, when your social credit score isn’t high enough to have a decent job or housing, because you refused the latest round of “vaccines”?)

See, now the Left hates me, and so does the Right. For what I just said right there. Can’t win.

If you’re thinking “if you stand for nothing, you’ll fall for anything!” (as some attribute to Alexander Hamilton) — I don’t disagree with you. 

But stay with me a minute.

If We Don’t Find Common Ground, THEY WIN!

When the conversation stops, because we’re “dug in” to our trenches so deeply, is there any hope of a peaceful resolution? That’s what The Powers That Be want, you know — for us to hate each other. 

I mean, both of my states, Florida and Utah, landed on abortion being legal until 12 or 14 weeks. 

While this displeased both the “reproductive rights at all costs” folks and the “abortion is murder” folks, frankly, that’s about where I land, in the post-Roe age.

For sure, the progressives who jump in and care about medical freedom with us seem to mostly allude to how many generations their family has been Democrat, or the previous values of the Democratic party, back when they were all about civil liberties for all, and radical accountability. 

(Hey, whatever happened to the ACLU and other civil rights groups? Oh right, they didn’t care whatsoever how civil rights were destroyed in 2020, and haven’t returned.)

And the more extreme the rhetoric gets, the more hope is lost by the 60% of us “in the middle,” that we can ever live together on this land mass in peace.

Two Countries — Or a New Constitution — Is One of Them Inevitable?

Maybe we are so hopelessly deadlocked that we need a civil war or separation, where there are conservative and liberal states. Two countries? Some propose this. Some propose California divide in two.

What about the fact that a LOT of people in the red states are leftist, and a LOT of people in the blue states are conservatives?

Some want a ConCon (constitutional convention). I don’t. I don’t think our Constitution is the problem; it may be one of the most brilliant documents ever drafted and adopted, and it’s currently being violated Everywhere USA, on the daily. 

We don’t have enough courtrooms and judges in this country to deal with even a single-digit percentage of the violations of the Constitution going on. 

But an even bigger problem is that opening up the Constitution for rewrite can “cut both ways” — and we could end up seeing it totally gutted in ways we don’t like.

Navigating Hard Conversations

The only thing I know, that can possibly turn the tide, is more conversations like these. And an awareness that 60% of us are too “moderate” to really hitch their trains to the right wing or the left wing. 

Of course, we have bigger issues, such as the massive election fraud evidence that our courts refuse to hear. If it wasn’t obvious enough in 2020, with the most popular “populist” president of our lifetime somehow losing, we had to endure a déjà vu experience last month, with the midterm elections. 

Again, only the swing states and the most freedom-oriented candidates were somehow in dispute.

Too many of our families and social lives were bitterly divided over the vaccination issue. I see many families taking tentative steps back to each other, though. 

Those of us who stood up to the aggressive vaccination campaign, and spoke our minds, and shared information with friends and family who got the injections and were angry that we didn’t — 

— we have to stay in a place of love, and always come from that place, when having the hard conversations. Even if we’re the only one in the conversation coming from a place of love. 

“I told you so” (or anything like that) has no place in these incredibly difficult conversations. We have to check our motives: needing to be “right” is a sure lose-lose approach. 

I like to start with “I care about you, is the only reason I try to share information about the vaccine, and your choices are not over; they want you to get more of them.”

Notice how the first thing I say is “I care about you.” (“I love you” works, too.)

We must have the one-on-one conversations. We have to stay in dialogue, in love and fairness, instead of huddling in our angry tribes. Understanding each other is the only way through. 

Please Weigh In

Are you seeing the populism? I would love to know, in the comments, if some of you want the freedom to choose what medical products are injected into your body, but don’t feel comfortable with the hard right, or the hard left.

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