2-24-24

This past weekend the annual CPAC conference concluded in DC with epic

gatherings of conservatives and all star ensemble of conservative policy warriors

giving speeches……folks like Charlie Kirk, Dan Bongino, Ben Shapiro, Tom Homan,

Vivek Ramaswamy, Vice President JD Vance, and so many more…..all with a

culminating speech by President Trump…..I’ve already decided that Rightside will

be there next year….it was a celebration event…..a victory lap of sorts……in the

wake of the November elections the conservative right in America is enjoying the

fruits of their labors and the spoils of victory……we are watching as government is

rightsized, military is strengthened, waste-fraud-and-abuse are revealed,

prisoners are freed, and common sense restored……was it a pep rally…..you bet it

was!.....and the truth is, it just looked like they were all having fun…..for crying

out loud, Elon Musk was on stage swinging a custom made chainsaw given to him

by Argentinian President Javier Milei…..a WWF Smackdown event has less going

on than CPAC did…..

But did you know that just down the road at nearly the same time was the

counter-pep rally……a gathering of sore losers and ne’er do wells, sycophants of

the lamestream media who need to have one last gasp……the grim reapers of

politics, mostly leftover never-Trumpers and White Guys for Harris……they called

it the “Principles First” summit…..they also called it the anti-CPAC

conference……great sulking minds like Bill Kristol, George Conway, Adam

Kinzinger, Mark Cuban, Chris Christie and John Bolton……wow…..they even

brought in two of the former Capitol Police Officers who made their claim to fame

by being there on January 6……man, that’s not a conference…..that’s just one big

cry room filled with pasty losers who are triggered by Trump’s very existence…..I

predict the mood wasn’t quite a match for the jubilation down the street at the

CPAC gathering……the bottom line is they just don’t get it…..if American’s wanted

their version of elitist moderation and establishment government we would have

voted for Nikki Haley……but we didn’t…..and it’s not sitting well with entrenched

believers of the uni-party…..

The bottom line is that they just don’t get it…..they don’t get that the will of the

people has spoken…..and if they want that changed then they will have their

chance just a few years from now to challenge the current leadership to bring in

their own and we will see where the chips may fall…..but for now, they pout…..a

full conference of griping, and stories of what could’ve been……a gathering of

regrets and plotting and scheming how to take it all back…..but democracy is a

sacred thing……being an elected official is more than just special….it is more than

just a popularity contest…..it is a sacred duty with solemn value placed on

it….something that much of the world can’t say they know or understand…..

When I was elected to the State Senate I knew that it was something special…..I

took it serious…..but then came the day soon after I won the election that I made

my first trip to the Alabama Statehouse, rode the elevator to the 7 th floor, and

went on to the floor of the State Senate and found a desk with my nameplate

already on it…..and it hit me that I was in a place to do business that affected

millions of lives…..and I was humbled and even a little bit overcome by it for a

bit…..I was struck by the formality of the proceedings….certain things had to be

said at certain times and under certain conditions in order to promote the good

order of the body and ensure that the records of the Senate were kept

intact……and I was proud to be a part of it…..One day several years into my time

in Montgomery I was walking back from lunch with my friend and colleague

Senator Greg Reed who until recently was the Senate Pro Tem….as Greg and I

crossed the side parking lot I looked over and saw the State Capitol with its white

dome shining in the sun and I had this sense of being a part of something bigger

than me, and I told Greg, “I hope I never get used to this, because the day I get

used to this its time to go.”……and then came the several months between my

second election and the start of the next session when the Senate chamber was

renovated…..The Senate chamber was tired and battered….all of the desks were

made of chipped Formica covered plywood that had been in place for

decades….the carpet was stained and mold was growing in the corners as a

leftover from the days when they could smoke on the Senate floor…..Senator Del

Marsh, as the Pro Tem, took it upon himself to orchestrate the renovation of the

Senate chamber….he used prison carpenters to make all the desks, replaced the

worn out chairs, cleaned out the mold, painted the walls and laid a classic blue

carpet….. just before I went to see it for the first time I asked him if he was

satisfied…..he said, “Phil, now it looks like a place where the laws are made”…..

What I’m trying to convey by sharing these memories is that the business of doing

“the people’s business” is a sacred trust…..it is not to be taken lightly…..it is not

something that should be done with a laissez faire attitude…..every vote that is

cast in the Statehouse or the US Capitol is a vote that affects millions of

people…..on the floor of the US Senate is where cabinet officials, Supreme Court

Justices, and our nations highest ranking military officers all receive their

confirmations…..the respective chambers of the US House and Senate are where

decisions are made to raise taxes, declare war, address disasters, and sometimes

pass budgets…… no more than 100 men and women serve at any one time serve

in the Senate itself……the Oval Office is the peoples office….we decide who sits at

the Resolute Desk and gets to make the decisions that impact the world….the

President appoints members to the US Supreme Court who then determine the

applicability of the laws and the Constitutional grounding thereof….. members of

our elected government, for all their warts and blemishes, are still the people that

we look to for decisions designed to “establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility,

provide for the common defense, promote the general Welfare, and secure the

Blessings of Liberty”…..and even when they don’t….even when they make

decisions that we don’t like….they should be constrained to do so in a manner

that is professional, and orderly, and formal……because the making of laws is

special…..it is one of the most special things in the world….there are nations full

of people who have no idea what it means to have an elected person standing in

office and swearing an oath to uphold and defend the constitution……the making

of laws is special, the enforcement of laws is special, the interpretation and

protection of laws is special, and we deserve to know that those who make

them…..good or bad……don’t do so as an afterthought……or a lark…. And that

those we vote for are the ones who get to do it……

And I will add one more thought to all of this…..the elected will of the people can

only happen if God allows it…..I say that to say this, I believe that we were just

witness to a massive answer to prayer…..I believe that we were just spared from a

debauchery and abuse of the process of government unlike any that has been

seen in modern times and certainly not in America…..I’m not at all equating

Trump or his administration, or any elected official with godliness, or placing

them on some undeserved pedestal…..but I do believe that he is in office, and

Republicans in the majority, because of a massive intervention by an all-knowing

God…..I believe that, and no one can shake me from it…..not even a bunch of

hand-wringing never Trumpers at their giant cry room …… I’ll close with the words

found to the right of the statute of Thomas Jefferson in the Jefferson

Memorial….it is a quote attributed to Jefferson himself….”God who gave us life

gave us liberty. Can the liberties of a nation be secure when we have removed a

conviction that these liberties are the gift of God?”…….I say no…..

But I acknowledge that the anti-Trump anti-conservative establishment types who

lost bigly in the election have a first amendment right to scream in the public

square……but I have an equal right not to listen to their drivel….

Because, in my opinion…..they just don’t get it……

And that’s a wrap for the Rightside Way……