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.