Of the many life lessons my high school wrestling coach taught me, one such gem resonates with me 39 years hence: "Boy Scouts don't win street fights."  I find that truism uniquely relevant to today's political pickle.

The late Andrew Breitbart observed that politics is downstream from culture.  One upshot thereof is that being the minority party does not absolve elected representatives of their duties.  As we saw from 2017–2020, the left has taken to heart the old axiom about the squeaky wheel — despite not having the votes to implement their agenda in Congress, they affected it culturally by being the loudest voices in the media and on the street.  The left also understands the phenomenon known in some circles as "Culture Creep," in others as the "Overton Window of Political Possibility" (defined by conceptually.org as "the range of ideas the public is willing to consider and accept"), whose relevant gist is that if one does not speak out against the cultural rot taking place a thousand miles away, he will soon find that rot has spread to his front yard.  How is the GOP combatting the rot these days?

According to Johns Hopkins, the survival rate of COVID-19 is better than 98% for all age ranges.  The data regarding deaths and other health complications associated with the mRNA vaccine raise valid concerns.  Simple physics informs professionals such as engineers and filter manufacturers that a cloth or paper mask is powerless to stop virus molecules.  A recent lab analysis of masks worn by children for 5–8 hours found antibiotic-resistant bacteria, as well as pathogens that cause maladies such as E. coli, pneumonia, tuberculosis, meningitis, diphtheria, and Legionnaires' disease.  Recent data show that, rather than curtail the spread of COVID-19, lockdowns exacerbated it.  Finally, we know that (a) unvaccinated, asymptomatic people do not spread viruses; (b) the young are the least likely to be harmed by COVID-19; (c) there are numerous therapeutics available that have treated COVID-19 (among them, the HCQ/azithromycin combination, and ivermectin); and (d) since the dawn of humankind, we have successfully combatted viruses with natural defense mechanisms — among them B cells and T cells. 

Nonetheless, the Biden administration deploys propaganda squads door to door (in at least one instance, shadowed by vaccine-packing technicians).  Dr. Fauci et al. insist that the only road to herd immunity is via vaccines (despite the fact that the way a traditional vaccine works is by using a dead/inert form of the target virus to stimulate one's natural defenses, such as B cells and T cells — exactly what exposure to the live virus will do).  Dr. Fauci et al. insist that people don makeshift masks even if they've been vaccinated.  The Biden bureaucracy encourages private businesses to demand that their employees take one of the vaccines.  Two governors announce their intent to impose vaccine passports and segregate the unvaccinated.  As the viral-variant hysteria ramps up, the usual suspects prattle about reimposing lockdowns, which, logic suggests, would include selective business closures. 

Meanwhile, GOP communications specialist Frank Luntz helps the Biden regime push its vaccine evangelism, with a dutiful assist from GOP Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell.

For over one year, Antifa and BLM have looted, vandalized, and even murdered.  Simultaneously, police officers are unjustly vilified, defunded, and demoralized to the point that many have turned in their badges.  To add insult to indignity, the Biden dominion makes no secret of its desire to restrict our Second Amendment rights, or altogether deprive us of the most effective means of self-defense known to history.

Meanwhile, GOP senators suffer the vapors over spiked trees.

The left continues to spin the myth of the "January 6 Insurrection," despite the facts that (a) only the capitol police and other government officials bore firearms during the incident, and (b) the only death that can be proximately connected to the incident was that of Ashli Babbitt, an unarmed Air Force veteran who was shot by an unidentified (officially, anyway) government official.

Meanwhile, GOP representative Markwayne Mullin commiserates with Ms. Babbitt's slayer.

While the DHS secretary — himself a Cuban refugee — warns Cuban refugees they will not be welcome on our shores, and quickly makes good on the threat, the Biden ministry opens the overland floodgates at our southern border. 

Meanwhile, GOP representative Mike Waltz loses sleep over Hunter Biden's involvement in shady shenanigan number 1,412.

The Biden regime wages war against our oil and gas industry, while it rescinds sanctions on Russia's Nord Stream 2 pipeline.

Meanwhile, at Speaker Pelosi's Kabuki Carnival, GOP representative Adam Kinzinger debuts his hammy rendition of William Hurt's teary-eyed scene from Broadcast News (1987).

Evidence of massive fraud mounts in Arizona, Georgia, Pennsylvania, and Michigan, which fraud very likely nullified a record-breaking number of votes cast on November 3, 2020.  The DOJ issues threats in an effort to derail Arizona's forensic audit, as well as deter such audits in other states.  The DNC deploys an army of lawyers to fight those audits, but the RNC is nowhere to be found, despite having cashed in on the controversy.

Meanwhile, no fewer than 17 GOP senators give the Biden patronage their "Harrumph!" on a $1.2-trillion "infrastructure" bill, which, incidentally, has yet to be written.  Among the items in this theoretical bill are yet another giveaway to the electric auto industry and yet another bailout of Amtrak.

What appalls me more than the effrontery of the governors and mayors who imposed the arbitrary business closures in 2020 is how willingly small business owners complied.  Why did they succumb?  Primarily, because they lacked moral support.  When the leaders we elect are silent in the face of tyranny, we lose our will to fight even the most egregious of infringements.

If only we had a party of streetfighters in our corner.  Or, at least, a warrior-coach to whip the extant Boy Scout party into shape.  Alas, we elected just such a paladin in 2016, but his lessons fell on wooden ears.  So now we must replace all that dead weight.  As we do so, let us revisit my coach's proverb.  While it is always good to gauge how a candidate will vote in chamber, might I suggest we pay equal attention (if not more) to how ardently that candidate will fight the culture war in the media and on the street?

Meanwhile, I suppose it is some small consolation that Troop Leader McConnell has quite the eye for men's fashion.

R. Thomas Risk is a pseudonym.

Image: hansgklein via Pixabay, Pixabay License.

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