Do you consider yourself a good citizen?  Moderate in your thinking, fair-minded, interested in getting the facts and making rational decisions?

Nothing wrong with that.  It's commendable.  You try to be fair.  You think about right and wrong, knowing that without something to differentiate you from what you find repugnant, your moral compass is unreliable.  An examined life is important, and it's also critical to act. 

In the early days of the Culture War, we frequently refused to recognize it as such.  We were told there wasn't one and that we were being paranoid, and in our efforts to be accommodating and congenial, we ignored one salvo after another.  Are there any remaining doubters today, and if so, how much more evidence will they need?  In his novel Victoria, Bill Lindt describes a United States that crumbles under the onslaught of Cultural Marxism — another construct liberals say is fiction — and with all of the talk about Civil War 2.0, it is easy to think so.

 Looking back over the past two decades, it is clear how liberalism has yielded to Leftism.  To these people, ordinary is pedestrian and obsolete, but ordinary people simply want to get on with their lives and preserve meaningful traditions.  The radicals who want to dismantle the infrastructure seem not to realize that the past can be preserved while improvements are made: progress does not require anarchy.  Sadly, we seem beyond words anymore.  The politicians we counted on have failed us, and wherever we look there are shaming, ridicule, threats, and even violence directed toward persons expressing contradictory opinions over the outlandish notions liberals conceive.

In a recent American Thinker article, David Lanza mentioned how the author of Fin worked his political opinion into the book.  What is happening is affecting everything, because everything anymore is political fodder.  Politics infuses our every institution and permeates our lives.  It affects our jobs, the food we eat, the movies we watch, the pastimes we enjoy.  Our lives are increasingly regulated, and our freedom is being strangled by the tightening chains of political correctness.

Joseph Ellis's biography of George Washington, His Excellency, George Washington, published by Vintage, Ellis describes how Washington referred to what came to be known as the American Revolution as "the Cause."  Given the challenges to free thinking so manifest nowadays, it seems appropriate to use the same term here.  The glorious Cause before conservatives now is that of preserving the freedom we have enjoyed in this nation since we won our independence from England.  Back then, a citizen who committed to defending liberty joined a militia or the Continental Army.  What is the average American citizen to do now to address the political ills of current society?

The reality is that the persons arrayed against us have greater resources than us, and ample time to devote to research and activism.  They are funded by billionaires like George Soros and Mike Bloomberg, and they generally use any means necessary to further their aims.

Our nation was founded on the principle of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, and because those persons who fought for these rights were patriots, the term continues to be worthy to describe any American proud of his history, who is aware of his nation's shortcomings without dismissing its right to exist and improve.  It is unfashionable now to think in terms of patriotism.  It is regarded as quaint, even dangerous, to hold nationalistic tendencies; after all, liberals argue that it leads to fervency, single-mindedness, a kind of madness that results in violence and war.  That illogic aside, our forefathers were patriots, and so are any Americans who honor their sacrifice with a willingness to do the same.

We can't be deluded by the thought that liberals are simply people with different ideas with whom we wish to coexist.  They want to be in power and control us, and in many ways, they already do.  Average Americans work, usually 40 hours a week, maybe more.  They buy homes and cars and raise their children.  Busy with life, they tend not to give too much thought to politics, regarding it as unpleasant business.  But liberals are actively seeking — and acquiring — power, often through unscrupulous means, and they are overt, ruthless, and merciless.  They coerce, threaten, bully, and use violence where necessary.  They control a great deal of territory: the majority of public schools, universities, libraries, media production companies, and so on.  Most movies, television shows, books, and magazines are produced or published by them.  Our businesses, which were formerly bastions of capitalism, are bullied by them.  The majority of social media are biased in their favor.  Do a search on any content using Google, or any search engine using its results, and you get page after page of liberal sources before you begin to see conservative sources.  The lives and standard of living of Americans are threatened by liberal policies, yet the majority of people are  too distracted to see the danger.  Like the gazelle that does not see the lion stalking it, the outcome of the hunt is inevitable unless distraction gives way to attention.

 What about persons interested in digging deeper?  How are they to do it?  What is a man to do when, realizing that he is ignorant, resolves to educate himself?  How does he go about it?  And how, when he has a job to do, shall he find the time to consider it, let alone do it?

These are questions we must all answer if we are to save our democracy.