Rush Limbaugh launched a war on liberals in 1992 when he published his first book, “The Way Things Ought To Be.” I was the editor of a small newspaper in California; even though the town was remote, Limbaugh was already on everyone’s lips. His daily mental lapses were parroted daily by the town’s conservatives, and showed up frequently in our letters to the editor.
Soon, we had a new crop of politicians running for office, particularly at school boards and town council. These were evangelicals, committed to ideas like school prayer and banning abortion, books, and teachers. They also hoped to defeat liberals on the local level. Fervent, religious, cultish and committed, they succeeded. They established charter schools that “just happened” to have entire staffs of Christian teachers, principals and aides.
After they won on a local level, they pushed onto the state. Moderate Republicans were defeated in primaries. Wealthy conservatives provided cash flow.
Most moderates on the right and left did not pay enough attention. They did not try to fill the local offices; they didn’t write letters to the editor. They didn’t provide a theme for community strangers to unite behind. They just …. didn’’t.
And today they have won again. As Alito pointed out in the draft making the rounds of the mainstream media today, 26 states have submitted requests to overturn Roe v. Wade. More than half. These states, in their legislatures, passed laws to restrict or eliminate abortion, and they are asking the federal government to step aside.
We certainly should have seen this coming, and many of us did. But while we were working at day jobs, raising children, doing laundry and housework, we lost the home field advantage. We lost state legislatures, school boards, city council and supervisor seats.
I don’t mean to kick liberals and moderates when they are down, but I do hope that they will see that this is a war of principles, a war in which we must engage. We must fight harder. We can’t miss elections. We have to show up. We need to watch what our adversaries are doing. And we need to make small contributions to our candidates, even if we don’t believe it is the right thing to do. Since the passage of Citizens United, money does talk and it does vote. You can count on it. If we had the votes, we could overturn it. But we need the votes.
Because of our indifference, we allowed Donald Trump to become president. We allowed radicals to take seats in Congress and in the Senate. We refused to defend our ideas when we were called out. Like Hillary Clinton, we believed this tidal wave of abhorrent ideas would destroy itself. It hasn’t. Ignorant conspiracy theories spread faster than facts. Believe it.
Today is the time to get busy. I urge all of you who are engaged ( especially if you are reading and writing on Facebook, Twitter and here), please run for office wherever you can. Go out and speak up. Make yourself heard. Have confidence in yourself and your ideas. Because it is almost too late.