5-6-25

There is a thread of thought out there that you have to be pure in your positions to

be allowed to participate in the process….what do I mean by that…..well,

yesterday I saw that Alex Villanueva, the Sheriff of Los Angeles county in

California, just switched to the Republican Party after decades as a Democrat…..is

that okay?....can we see that happen?....is it reasonable to believe that he really is

one of us?....and I have to ask “what does one of us mean?”…..I still hear people

say “Well, be careful because Elon Musk used to be a Democrat”….yeah, but it is

he now?.....is he helping or hurting?.....be careful of RFK and Tulsi Gabbard

because they were Democrats!....yeah, Democrats who bucked their own party and

even sued their own party and are now doing everything the way I would want it

done…..it’s doesn’t mean I trust their positions on everything…..I don’t have any

illusions that any of those folks I just named are suddenly true died-in-the-wool

conservatives who’ve seen the light on every position, but I do believe that they

have joined my team and the roles they’ve been given are going the way I would

want them to go….

So, before you think I’m watering down my standards, the answer is “no” I am

not…..I’m a Republican, sure….but I’m a conservative Christian first…..because

I’m a conservative Christian I look through that lens and have my worldview

shaped by those principles…..and I find that generally speaking the Republican

Party is more in line with my Conservative Christian values, therefore I am a

Republican…..but I also saw time and again when I served in the Statehouse that

there were Republicans who differed from me on certain positions….we could

stand side by side one day, and then go toe to toe the next day…..generally we

were together, but sometimes we were not…..and it’s maddening….you’d like to

think that if you’re on the same team that all things align, but they don’t…..I had

fellow Republicans who were pro-life, but also pro-tax….I had fellow Republicans

who were soft on abortion but wouldn’t ever vote for a tax increase…..and I saw

Democrats who would occasionally cross the aisle to vote for something that no

one else in their party would vote for and you bet we took their vote…..here’s the

deal….what I’m saying is that sometimes the enemy of my enemy is my

friend….sometimes, a vote, or effort, from somebody who is not entirely lined up

with me on every subject is still a friend for that moment and their help is worth

having….their work is still worth doing….and their results are still worth

applauding…..I’ve heard that General William Booth, the founder of the Salvation

Army, said once, “I’ll take a dollar from the devil if I can use it for God’s

work”…….so yeah, I’m an absolute constitutional Christian conservative, but if a

former Democrat want’s to help me fight progressives on a certain issue today, I

will take that vote and use it to advance my cause…..

I’m saying all of this because I heard a story this morning that I had never heard

before….a story from WWII that should be made into a movie…..have you ever

heard about the last battle at Castle Itter?....the time when German and American

soldiers banded together to fight the SS?...I hadn’t either, but man it’s a good

story….so, sit back and listen my friends…..because this is history…..and it

happened exactly 80 years ago this week…..

In May 1945 the war in Europe was almost over…. Hitler and Mussolini were

both dead, …. American and Soviet forces had already linked up and the German

government was about to formally surrender….. German soldiers were either

trying to give up to the Allies…. or in the case of diehards like the SS, to kill

anyone they considered traitor….Castle Itter, was a relatively modern fortification,

built in 1878 at the top of a hill overlooking the village of Itter in the Tyrol region

of Austria. It had been a private estate and a hotel and eventually came under Nazi

control. In 1943, Castle Itter was made part of the Dachau prison network. But

unlike the rest of Dachau it was not a death camp. Instead, it was a prison for some

of the Nazis’ most important VIPs…There were French generals, 2 Former French

prime ministers, along with other politicians. A former French tennis star turned

nationalist politician a handful of Czech and Yugoslav partisans and even Charles

de Gaulle’s sister was in prison at the castle…..as the surrender of Germany came

closer the guards abandoned the prisoners and left them alone…..but the word was

that the SS were coming so the prisoners sent one of their own to a nearby village

and he found a group of 2 dozen German regular Army soldiers who were already

contemplating how to surrender to the US troops that were advancing into the

area…..the prisoner convinced the German commander who then realized that this

was a great way to make some points with the Americans….so under a flag of

truce the German officer approached four tanks from the US 12 th Armored Division

led by a Captain Jack Lee…..the story goes that Captain Lee was standing there

chewing on an unlit cigar as the German told him about Castle Itter and decided to

work with the man…… so one small US tank unit, a group of Infantry, 2 dozen

German soldiers, all moved on to the Castle and secured it together…..two groups

of enemies came together for a rescue of the prisoners…..and they were none too

soon…..over 100 SS soldiers marched on the Castle within hours of the mixed

group setting up defenses….the SS had artillery and the mixed group of rescuers

had castle walls…..then the prisoners armed themselves and joined the

fight…..German, French, American, Czech and Balkan fighters had held off an

overwhelming Nazi force of diehard SS troops while holed up inside a castle on a

mountain…..they were surrounded…..their communications were knocked out….it

was the Alamo…..and the battle raged on, and the German Officer was killed by an

SS sniper….let that sink in….the snipers were German, the man they shot was

German…..it was all on the line now…..eventually the Frenchman who had been a

famous tennis star was chosen to make a suicide run for help…..the Americans

knew the rough position of other forces and the Frenchman ran out the gate,

through the battlefield, under fire from the SS and made it overland to US

forces…..the SS began advancing on the castle……just as Captain Lee was

ordering his weird conglomeration of fighters to fall back further into the castles

keep the reinforcements arrived….. American armor and Infantry….. They tore

through the SS, who abandoned the fight leaving their dead on the slopes around

the castle. ….the Americans linked up with Captain Lee and the prisoners were

eventually all repatriated to their home countries…..German Officer Josef Gangl

was the man who gave his life while joining his former enemies to fight his

previous friends….Captain Lee was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross,

second only to the Medal of Honor for heroism under fire……but you have to

wonder….what would have happened if Captain Lee had just take the German’s

prisoner and not listened to their story about the castle….no one would have

argued….it was war…they were the enemy….but at that moment the enemy of his

enemy became his friend…..and Captain Lee took the time to align himself with

someone for the greater good…..

Now I know that the German soldiers in that fight against the SS were still former

Nazi’s….I know that if the roles were reversed and their side had been winning

they would likely not have aligned themselves with US troops to fight the SS….but

that’s not the point….because sometimes your situation dictates…..sometimes the

hand up or the hand out can come from the least expected situations….the Bible is

full of stories about allies in strange places…..Rahab, the Canaanite woman who

helped Israel at Jericho…..foreign kings who aligned themselves with

Israel…..Egyptian pharaohs who God used to bring Jews into safe haven…..it

happens…..and it happens in politics…..we are watching right now as one of the

most eclectic group of innovators have been brought together in one

administration…..business tycoons, former Democrats, lawyers, bankers, TV news

personalities, old soldiers and Gen Z influencers…..all working together to get

something done…..do I trust all of them all the time….nope….why would I…..but

I see right now that each has been put into a role for which each of them seems

innately suited…..and while I might be more conservative than some of them, I see

good stuff happening….I see real change….I see broken stuff getting fixed, and

stupid stuff getting broken, and so far I’m for it all…..because yeah, sometimes

politics, and war, make for strange bedfellows….sometimes the enemy of my

enemy winds up being my friend…..at least for a time…..at least for a purpose…..

And that’s a wrap for the Rightside Way!