The Left has acquired yet another stuffed head to place upon its trophy wall.  I speak of the capitulation of the fried poultry–dispenser that is Chick-fil-A.  Effective immediately, Chick-fil-A will no longer be dispensing charitable funds toward organizations of a distinctly Christian character who oppose homosexual "marriage," such as the Salvation Army and the Fellowship of Christian Athletes.  This was the sort of rupture that the Left has sought from Chick-fil-A for years.

There have been ridiculous attempts by a few on the right to lessen the blow of this humiliating surrender by pretending this is something other than what it clearly is: a cultural defeat.  Disregarding such self-deceptions, the rest of us recognize the fact that yet another conservative corporate entity has waved the white flag acknowledging the Left's cultural hegemony.  What is especially telling in this case is not the craven behavior of Chick-fil-A and its CEO Dan Cathy per se, but how utterly unnecessary it was.

The leftist siege of Chick-fil-A began in 2012, when Mr. Cathy, who at that time was not suffering from the debilitating condition of severe spinal jellification that now unfortunately afflicts him, came out of the closet openly proclaiming his support for traditional marriage.  Along with this fact came the revelation that as an economic expression of its religious and political beliefs, Chick-fil-A (besides the vaunted Sunday closings) gave liberally to charities that support traditional marriage.

The continuous siege of Chick-fil-A backfired, leaving the leftist boycotters starving as Chick-fil-A thrived immensely with profits climbing exponentially upward quarter after quarter.  The company also managed to in the process acquire saintly status as defender of the faith among Christians and was given a medal of honor by conservatives, especially those who had not yet accepted the defeat of the right in the culture war as an irreversible given.

The Left, sensing the futility of its siege, changed tactics and attempted to take Chick-fil-A by storm by lobbying local governments in highly liberal cities to block its franchises due to its stance on homosexual marriage.  This was apparently just too much for Chick-fil-A to handle, leading to the untimely capitulation.  The Left was able to breach the walls and deliver this final blow by simply playing on the infinite avarice of its CEO and the rest of its board.

It became clear that Chick-fil-A would not be able to further expand to liberal markets under this new assault and might lose some of the franchises it already held in those markets.  This displeased Mammon (the true god worshiped by the Chick-fil-A leadership to the disappointment of its evangelical cheerleaders) as the endless and ultimately pointless accumulation of wealth upon wealth Mammon requires of his adherents could no longer continue, and so Chick-fil-A acted accordingly.  Mr. Cathy and his board are men clothed in immense wealth, but their gluttonous desire for coin appears to be as boundless as that of any half-starved two-bit hustler.

Instead of taking to the barricades and entrenching themselves within Middle America (the section of the American public they have claimed to adore for years past), they bent the knee for the chance at acquiring some of the filthy money of the leftists who despise everything they stand for and everything they are.  The love of money is not only the root of all evil, but the root of the right's never-ending cultural defeats.

The Left understands this weakness among the modern right and has exploited it to perfection.  When will conservatives finally begin to understand that money is simply a means to an end not an end in itself, and that when pecuniary obsessions began to undermine conservative principles, it is high time to reverse course?  We must be made of sterner stuff than this and not degenerate into shopkeepers and accountants, letting mere profit outweigh sacred principle.

Ernesto J. Antunez is a conservative writer and student of political science residing in Miami.  He can be reached at ernestoantunez@live.com or via Facebook or Twitter.