This dichotomy between what conservatives believe and how they act  can be a puzzle sometimes. However, consider what’s at the core of the economic and social thought behind the beliefs. I worked hard. What’s mine is mine and you can’t take what is mine. I need to have the freedom to live my life because my way of life is under assault from all of these other people that have different ways of life. They want to push their way of life onto me. They must be stopped.

This is conservatism in a nutshell. We can rail against the man and I certainly am guilty of that, but what is more bothersome are the sheer number of people willing to carry that water for him. We have Supreme Court justices openly flying stop the steal flags (plural) at their homes (also plural). We have others with spouses that were directly involved in the movement that are still ruling on cases directly involved anyway.

We have Congresspeople and senators gladly pushing wild conspiracy theories and making outlandish statements and pushing policies that would limit our freedom. The problem is that they don’t view it this way. They think they are advancing freedom because they either fundamentally don’t understand the concept or they understand all too well and want to deny that to a group of Americans.

People that are progressive, liberal, leftists, or just caught in the middle want some way to combat all of this. They are looking for a lifeline. A large part of the complaint is that there is just too much. Just imagine the number of news stories that have occurred in the last two weeks that somehow have not made the first page of the major newspapers.

Freedom is a difficult concept. It means allowing people to live lifestyles you would not approve of or want for yourself. In exchange you get to live your life the way you see fit. Harrison Butker can live his life as he sees fit. His wife is free to submit to his will if she is willing to do so. It doesn’t mean than any of us have to do the same thing.

In the same way, anyone in the LGTBQ+ community can live their truth the way they see fit. Conservatives don’t want that. They see freedom differently. Freedom for them means that their lifestyle must be protected and preferred. The others must be suppressed. You can feel free to be gay on your own time, but don’t tell me about it and certainly don’t act on it in public. They believe in freedom if it means agreeing with them. I really don’t think most of the people trumpeting Butker are racist necessarily. They trumpet him and disagreed with Kaepernick because they agree with Butker and disagreed with Kaepernick. It’s really that simple.

The GOP calls themselves the freedom party. The most extreme members of their party call themselves the Freedom Caucus. This election and all future elections rest on this single issue. How do you define freedom? If it means you get to live a conservative lifestyle but others don’t get to live theirs then feel free to vote Republican. Just keep in mind that you are okay as long as no one finds something you do as objectionable. The end game is easy to see here. They will continue to attack people on the fringes and until there is no more fringe. Then, they will attack themselves. There will be one lonely one left and no doubt that dumb son of a bitch will attack the mirror.

I am but am amateur at this political game. I am what they call a support facilitator. I go into other teacher’s classrooms and work directly with students with disabilities. They could include learning disabilities or developmental disabilities. Occasionally, we deal with students with behavioral issues, but the other two kinds represent the bulk of what I do. So, when asked to come up with a national platform for the Democratic party I can only offer my best guess.

My platform is labeled, “let freedom ring.” Beyond the obvious what exactly does this mean? One of the things we have done as a party is cede way too many arguments to the right. I’ve mentioned these before and I won’t belabor them here. What we are in danger of doing is ceding freedom and liberty to them as well. There is nothing remotely freeing about what the Moms for Liberty are proposing. The so-called Freedom Caucus is anything but about freedom. This needs to be highlighted over and over again.

So, how do we do this? Simply put, take the words from their platform and simply use them against them and their group. Take what Moms for Liberty has to offer and completely tear it apart. At the same time you offer an alternative view of freedom and liberty. I think most of us here (with notable exceptions) would agree that it is the real version of freedom and liberty. Hell, you can bust out a dictionary to prove your point. How does your platform differ from those specific groups and from the Republican party in general? How is our platform closer to the vision of actual freedom and liberty?

One of the things I have talked about in the past is the idea of issue framing. I can’t take credit for it. It came from the book “Cracking the Code” by Thom Hartmann. Essentially, the idea is that rooted in every issue is a common story. Conservatives have just been better at this than we have. Get to the root of every one of their stances and you will see this story. It usually is centered on the idea of rugged individualism. You too can succeed if the damn government will just get out of your way and let you do it.

We need our own competing story. Our story has to have the true definitions of freedom and liberty at its core. Sure, live and let live is a simple offshoot of that. The idea that someone can be religious or not is basic. The idea that someone can be gay or not is basic. The idea that someone can live an alternative lifestyle or not is basic. We need to expand this outward. We need to describe how our health care system actually limits freedom. If the vast majority of bankruptcies in this country are caused by medical costs and debt then that system is antithetical to freedom. We need to free people from the anxiety related to crippling medical care costs.

That’s just one example. You essentially take this model and expand it outwards. It means simplifying issues and making it all about freedom. How does our plan make you more free? How does their plan make you less free? Millions of voters simply don’t understand how they become less free if they vote GOP. They think to themselves that they aren’t immigrants, women, people of color, or LGTBQ+, so why does it matter if those people have less freedom? In fact, wouldn’t that mean that I have more? Life is a zero sum game to them. You won’t catch them all, but you have to repeat the notion that less freedom for them means less freedom for all. Keep repeating that over and over again and give them examples. Then, we have a fighting chance.

Sometimes you just gotta love the South Carolina Belles of Heaven Republican Women’s Club, if only because nobody else does.

They have a dandy little project that’s gonna work as good as prohibition.

They are gonna keep pornography off the internet machine in South Carolina. Yes, indeed, a South Carolina free of pornography.  Here’s the plan:

Computers and devices sold in South Carolina that can access the internet would be required to have filters installed to prevent people from viewing pornography, although buyers could pay a $20 fee to remove the blocking software under a proposal before the legislature.

Republicans put the government in my bedroom, then my uterus, and now in my MacBook.

And I kinda suspect that their idea of porn and my idea of porn might be real different.

But here’s the part that worries me:  you know what’s worse than a Trump-supporting angry old white guy?  A Trump-supporting angry old white guy without porn on his computer.

Thanks to Carl for the heads up.