Cheap Seats 2020

Victory, Defeat and Spaces In Between - 11/11

By Rich Trzupek
  Before we get into the election, or possibly the lack of an election, allow me to take this opportunity to break the fourth wall in order to say “thank you.” When I announced that my lovely bride and I would abandon the Prairie State for new pastures, I had no idea that y’all would respond as y’all did. I am truly humbled.
  The mighty Examiner has provided me with ink and space to trumpet my opinions for nigh on 20 years. Those opinions, being of the conservative/libertarian variety, have not been at all welcome among the progressive/liberal readers who fall within the borders of Examinerland. Every month or two my like-minded publisher receives a cancellation notice, citing his temerity in hosting The Cheap Seats as the reason. He treats such occasions as a badge of honor, as do I.
  Anyways, outside of that and the occasional letter of support and the much less occasional, but by no means non-existent, note of disagreement, feedback is normally pretty limited. It wasn’t until I announced the move and many readers understandably interpreted that to mean the end of the Cheap Seats that I understood how many of you appreciate and enjoy the musings of your humble correspondent. I am touched and humbled by all of your kind notes – thank you. And, so long as my esteemed publisher gives me the ink and the Lord provides me the breath, the Cheap Seats will live on.
  Included in that “fare the well” sets of emails were a few “good riddance” notes, which is perfectly acceptable of course. But what always strikes me about the email I get from liberals and progressives is the nasty, personal, insulting tone that oozes through 90 percent of them. Occasionally – very occasionally – I’ll get a reasoned, thoughtful message from somebody on the left in which they disagree with me about a particular issue rather than venting their spleen to tell me what an awful, racist, stupid, ignorant and evil waste of DNA I am. That is, unfortunately, the exception that proves the rule.
  Of course the left defends their bile by pointing out that hate exists on the right as well, so there! To be sure, in this communication age, you can always find a bad apple in any group with which you disagree and claim that rotten SOB represents the whole. The thing the left never understood was that this pugnacious president was the inevitable product of the toxic atmosphere for which they are primarily responsible, rather than the cause of it.
  Which brings us to this whole election thingy. My message to you my fellow conservatives and libertarians is simple: don’t behave like a Democrat. Not that you generally do. Shop owners in cities across the nation were not boarding up their windows to prevent rioting by Trump supporters in the event Smilin’ Joe won, which it appears he (probably) has.
  So be cool and continue to make arguments about policy, not personality. The same things that mattered to us when we elected the Donald are the same things that should matter under President Biden: strong borders, free enterprise, equality of opportunity rather than guaranteed equality of results, protection of life from conception through natural death, freedom of religion and freedom of expression. If someone wants to call you a racist or an idiot or a deplorable or whatever when you choose to oppose actions the coming administration may take that you believe threaten those American principals, just move on.
  Don’t lower yourself to behave like the spoiled children on the other side who want to make the police the enemy and whose definition of racism is about as flexible as a CNN anchor’s definition of integrity. You fight the good fight because it matters, not because you win or lose. If you can look at yourself in the mirror afterward and say that you did everything you could reasonably be expected to do, you’re done.
  Finally, on a somewhat disconnected note: good job to all of my like-minded friends in Illinois for defeating the Failure Tax. Apparently Jabba the Guv has decided that is also the fault of the Donald and his evil supporters. If that kind of thinking makes you question Pritzker’s grasp of common sense, fear not: Mike Madigan is still behind the curtain, running the show.
  richtrzupek@gmail.com