Sometimes, it feels like some people just are happier when they are losing the fight for culture and government. Maybe it is a misplaced sense of righteousness. Maybe it is a fear of responsibility. Whatever it is, it’s not attractive.
I don’t see this phenomenon so aggressively adopted in any other aspect of life. No one cheers for their sports team to lose. No one hopes the stocks they own will collapse in value.
There is a certain strain of “conservative” “Christian” media figures who are angriest when conservative Christians win. They can only feel righteous, it seems, when they are joining the Democrats, leftists, and God-haters in destroying successful Christian conservatives.
And I regularly come across conservatives who seem hellbent on not accepting victory. There are those who look for every opportunity to run down candidates who campaigned on the conservative principles they espoused. They look for dark motives behind politicians voting for good policies.
But it is even worse when a politician who had previously been on the wrong side comes around to the right way of thinking. Rather than celebrate, the long knives come out. While the Reagan-era geopolitical injunction to “trust but verify” has a healthy application in politics, we should all become more willing to accept the convert and move on to the next fight.
My work often has me on the road late at night, coming home from speeches and events in the far-flung reaches of our beloved state. My simplest goal each time I get on the road is to arrive home safely. As I pull into my driveway without being struck by a drunk driver along the way, I don’t care if everyone has embraced sobriety or that they were just too scared to risk being pulled over by law enforcement. My goal being achieved, I gratefully go to sleep.
While it might be nice to know, as much as any man can, that all my elected servants share my values and principles, I am much more content knowing that my political goals have been achieved. I don’t care if the politician truly believes or is merely scared of losing an election.
A win is a win.
With winning comes responsibility. In victory, one must be willing both to govern and accept accountability when things go awry. And this, I suspect, is where too many people choose to trade the victory parade for the heckler’s box. It is easier to lose.
And it is hard to claim the status of an aggrieved victim in politics, to be a martyr for one’s beliefs, when on the winning side of a fight. Too many people measure their righteousness by how often they are defeated.
We must be willing to accept reality as it is. There will be no perfect governments, perfect politicians, or perfect policies on this side of heaven.
Our job, in the here and now, is to advance the cause of liberty by inches, feet, and sometimes even yards. And, yes, to sometimes bear the burden of taking the win.
