8-12-25

I used to go backpacking quite a bit…..I say “used to” because it doesn’t seem to

happen anymore….maybe my life got busier, or too serious, or maybe I got to

where sleeping on the ground didn’t have as much allure……but I loved hiking all

day to pitch a tent and sit by the fire at night…..I spent time in the Rockies, but my

usual packing trips were in the Southeast within a stones throw of home, in the

Smokey’s, in the Appalachian Trail region, along the Pinhoti Trail…..one of my

favorites was to hike from Amicalola Falls in north Georgia up what is known as

the advance trail for about 8.3 miles over some serious terrain to Springer

Mountain where the official southern end of the Appalachian Trail is located…..it

was a tough hike, no doubt…..more uphill than downhill it seemed…..on one

particular trip I went up with a friend and made the ascent up to the top of Springer

Mountain, Georgia…..we found a trail shelter there, which is just a three sided

raised floor with a roof, but it gets you off the ground and out of the rain…..we

slept in the shelter feeling pretty good about ourselves and the next morning we

were heating up some water to make our morning coffee when another hiker came

walking up…..He had a beard down to his chest, and all of his gear looked well

worn….we greeted each other and he asked where we had come in from…..I told

him we hiked up from the falls, and felt pretty good about myself when I said

it…..he said something pleasant and then I asked him the same, “what about you?

Where’d you come in from”…..he just sighed and said “Maine”…..I was slack jaw

amazed…..he followed up by saying really almost disbelievingly, “yeah, seeing

you here on Springer means that I’ve just finished 6 months, 634 miles, straight

through”….at that point I had nothing…..he was what is known in whispered tones

as a “through hiker” – someone who starts the Appalachian Trail at Mount

Katahdin, Maine and doesn’t stop until they get to Springer Mountain,

Georgia….many start, but few make it……it was an honor to talk to him for a bit

and to offer him a cup of coffee……and to realize that somebody else can come

along and have a story that casts shadows on all the rest…..

I say all of that because a) it’s a cool story, but b) its sort of indicative of the way

Democrats are viewing Trump right now…..but without the congratulatory cup of

coffee…..Dems think they had trouble on the border, Trump fixed it….Dems think

they know how to fix crime, but then Trump actually fixes it…Dems want to lower

the cost of eggs, but then Trump actually does it…..Dems want to strengthen our

industrial base, but then Trump takes it to the next level…..Dems want social

justice, and then Trump teaches them about actual justice…..they are puffed up and

thinking they’ve got something and every time they turn around Trump outdoes

them…..it’s really pretty funny in a clown show sort of way…..

And they are apoplectic right now…..I mean, Democrats are like a school of

minnows that dart and dash in all directions every time a shadow crosses the

water….Democrats are running constantly, and nobody is even chasing them….

Maxine Waters, always good for a half-baked soundbite said that Trump is trying

to start a civil war…..wow….. that’s some messy talk right there….does anyone

really believe that? …..not for a minute. ..the states that make up this nation are

intertwined….like it or not California has one of the largest economies in the world

just by itself…..Texas is host to multiple US military installations….Colleges in

every state host kids from every state…..cars that are made in Alabama are sold in

New York….goods that are shipped from overseas arrive in ports in Louisiana and

are then shipped along federal and state funded highways to all corners of the

country….crab that are caught in Maine are eaten in Illinois and Potatoes grown in

Iowa are eaten in Tennessee….

But I will say that the “civil war” hyperbole has been more ostentatious on the

left….. the left uses the idea of civil war like a bludgeon….its an accusation….a

tactic….how many times have we had to endure the endless leftist cajoling about

the so-called “insurrection” of January 6 th ….that infamous day when armed

insurgents stormed the nations capital with intent to overthrow the US government

and install a puppet government designed to do their bidding?.....right……we’re

informed by the liberal media that Donald Trump is sure to become a dictator,

capable of suspending habeus corpus, doing away with the Constitution, and

imposing martial law….never mind that the Congress, the Courts, and even his

most ardent supporters would never stand for it, even if he had the slightest

inclination to do so….. its as if the Democrats need a Civil War to prove

themselves right….they post their memes about Civil War and it makes them feel

stronger in their liberal positions….I’ve got news…. The regime media, the leftist

politicians, the handwringing Karens, and the rioting activists don’t realize that

their rhetoric just makes them look foolish….not just sort of foolish, but full-on

clown car paste-eating flag-burning foolish…..Civil War is not on our horizon…..

the left knows that and it is panicking……the left needs to stoke division, and

promote fear, because, as they learned so well during the pandemic, if you can

stoke the passions of fearfulness you can truly control a society…..they need your

fear, they feed on it….it gives them strength, and it gives them a wicked sense of

hope that you will cow down and allow them to continue having their way…..so

they press on with their claims of insurrection, dictatorship, and brewing civil

war…..

Having said that, I want to talk about what we have to be ultimately careful

with….is for a batch of stupid to break out….a batch of stupid!....one moment of

stupid on our southern border, one moment of passion from someone who feels

aggrieved, one single shot fired in anger, or threat to a liberal politician, or a

demonstration that gets out of hand, and the left will pounce on it and yell “Aha!

We told you so!”…..And we are NOT going to give them the satisfaction…..stupid

is as stupid does according to the great philosopher Forrest Gump…..and we need

to keep the stupid tamped down…..

But I’m going to also lay this on you…..there was a scene in the movie Gladiator

in which Maximus looked at Senator Grachus and said, “the time for half measures

and talk is over Senator”……I will add to that what Ronald Reagan once said: “the

future doesn’t belong to the fainthearted; it belongs to the brave”……we do not

have the luxury of sitting idle…..there is a true movement afoot to undo our

culture, traditions, and liberties…..it is happening on a daily basis and I am

concerned what our nation would have looked like if we had to endure another 4-

year Biden term….we have made great strides, and we’ve done right out in the

open in the Democrats faces…..but we cannot let that be undone by any one person

who decides to take matters in their own hands and roll out a heaping batch of

stupid and set us back….make no mistake the left is looking for it….they want to

have that “I told you so” moment when one member of the right gets stupid and we

all have to pay for it…..but tamping down the stupid does not mean hunker down

and do nothing…..it does not at all mean that we should play the safe game, not

take chances, not go down the hard roads…..on the contrary, the time is now for

deliberate and decisive action to continue….that’s what it will take to recoup the

ground that the left stole over the past four years….so play hard, work hard, politic

hard, and keep the stupid at bay…..

One of my favorite passages from scripture is 1 Chronicles 12….in that passage we

are told about a group who became known as David’s Mighty Men….I’ve always

pictured the close knit group of guys who fought with William Wallace in

Braveheart…..warriors who could handle themselves in battle despite the

odds….but there wasn’t a touch of stupid in them….nobody was known as rash,

disorderly, or undisciplined…..one of the groups who made up Davids Mighty

Men were the Sons of Issachar, of whom it was said that they were “men who

understood the times, with knowledge of what Israel should do”…..

Conservatives everywhere are getting busy…..people who have never gotten

involved in anything more than Sunday school are now leading calls for change,

and organizing groups to lobby their elected officials…..local and state politicians

are taking notice…..statehouses are seeing the formation of state-level freedom

caucuses…..Moms are questioning school boards…..libraries are being brought

back in line…..there is a sense of purpose in conservatism, right now, perhaps

more than we’ve seen in recent memory…..and these are smart moves…..

The conservative right doesn’t want Civil War….we just want our country

back….we aren’t spoiling for an actual fight and screaming for blood….there is no

true and organized effort for insurrection, Donald Trump is not a tyrant, and we are

not stupid……but we are indeed fully and completely aware of our times, and we

have knowledge of what America must do…..and the time for half measures and

talk is over…..

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