Panic, Grace, Dan Orlovsky, and the Rise of Communism

We have, with less than eighty days until the election, reached the point where the 60+ crowd turns your friendly host into their punching bag to air out their frustrations about Trump. This happens every election cycle. It happened in 2012 too with many of the very same people yelling at me for criticizing Mitt Romney — people who now profess their undying hatred for the man. LOL.

If only I would be more of a team player. If only I would do or not do something. If only I would say or not say something. How about if only Donald Trump would stay on message, not attack Brian Kemp, etc?

We are in panic season.

The GOP looked like it’d be coasting to victory, and now, not only is the presidential race tied, but there are disturbing signs the GOP could lose the House and maybe not gain the Senate. Here in Georgia, there is growing concern that some state legislative seats are now in play that were not just four weeks ago.

It is easier for some people to blame you and me for not doing enough to toe a party line than to blame the guy who can’t stay on message. As a general rule of thumb, you're losing when you’re blaming the voters.

An old guy, the other day, blasted me for a radio monologue in which I noted this race would be won by 50,000 to 100,000 people, but the data suggests about a million people might decide to vote for one of the candidates to oppose the other candidate. That bias runs against Trump. My suggestion was that these people just not vote, let both parties note their refusal to vote, and let those of us supporting candidates go vote. The man not only decided he needed to call my Tulsa affiliate to have me taken off the air, but also all my advertisers. He informed me it must be “Trump or communism.” To suggest people not vote was too much. He refuses to acknowledge he missed the point — some people will vote for Harris because they hate Trump. Would he rather that or that they just leave that line blank?

Another insisted I need to be “more like Rush Limbaugh” and get on the team. He assured me that, at seventy, he knows the country is over if Trump loses, which is a position he held in 2020, undoubtedly. Y’all know I'm not good at team sports if you’ve been reading and listening long enough. Also, I am better at telling people I share their concerns about Trump but still prefer the policies I’d get from him than Harris, as opposed to grinding it out on his leg being a cheerleader when that’s not me. I find that persuades more people than joining the Trump boat parade.

Again, these complaints all come from the older than sixty crowd who have, yet again, convinced themselves that this is the last election to save the country. Given their ages, it may be their last election, but the “we’re doomed” talk comes every single election. And every single election everyone is sure that this is it. Four years from now, regardless of how the election goes, we’ll repeat this. Angry boomers will again insist that I must get on board, toe the party line, and tell everyone things I don’t believe in order to persuade those people.

The reality is pretty simple: we have a deeply flawed candidate who lost in 2020 or had it stolen, and the party decided to renominate the guy who either, as President, couldn’t keep his election from being stolen from him or couldn’t stay on message enough to persuade people he was better than the alternative. Rinse. Repeat.

It’s far easier to blame others than acknowledge one’s culpability with one’s choice in the primary or blame the guy into home you’ve poured your dreams, ambitions, and hope. And now, demanding everyone fall in line or else we get communism is, in its own way, communism. I’m an American and no the hell I do not have to fall in line. Also, everyone is going to disappoint you except Jesus.

This fear and panic is playing out across the culture.

Dan Orlovsky is an ESPN football commentator. He tweeted in defense of girls’ sports but deleted the tweet, stating that it did not reflect the views of his employer, ESPN.

My thought was, “I knew he was one of us! Good for him.”

Then I saw the reaction of conservatives on Twitter. Too many other people’s thought was, “Screw that guy for deleting his tweet.”

Way to incentivize others to take a stand.

You know, not everyone is in your position. Orlovsky is a highly-paid personality with a young family in an industry experiencing cutbacks and layoffs, with limited alternate hiring paths should he lose his job.

It’s really easy for others to demand Orlovsky be a martyr, knowing they themselves will live. Before you lecture me, I know of what I speak. You’d be amazed at how resistant some stations are to putting me on because I talk about my faith on the radio. I’ve lost opportunities because I won’t stop, but I have not lost my job. I do not fault Orlovsky for ducking after having stood up. We are not all in the same position.

The cultural right attacking Orlovsky for deleting a tweet will only ensure the next guy does not even bother speaking up. We’re isolating ourselves by showing no grace to those in difficult positions who signal they are with us, duck, and now have a target on their back that both sides are shooting at. Would you rather Orlovsky be in the chair or someone who does not share your worldview? If you’d rather a believer, you can show him some grace and recognize you are not in his shoes or in his world. Christians should not be the bullies.

Everyone on the right, in politics and culture right now, feels embattled and surrounded. The first thing to be discarded as the fear and frustration creep in is grace to others who you’ve convinced yourselves must not be on the team because they operate in different ways.

You either trust the sovereignty of God, or you don’t.

We often say there’s no atheist in a foxhole. But actually, there are a whole lot of people in a foxhole who profess God before the battle and forget all about Him when the shooting starts. He’s either in charge or He isn’t. In the meantime, you either trust Him or you don’t. And if you do, you reflect His grace.

And for those who are not believers, you attract more with honey than vinegar. There are less than 80 days left in this campaign. Nerves are frayed. The left is united. The right is suddenly divided. This, too, will pass. And no, we won’t have communism if Trump loses. We will not like what we get. But in four years, we will have another election. If you believe otherwise, you are not mentally well and need to disconnect your internet.

Screaming about communism, again, won’t persuade new voters.

Concurrently, yes, we do need to work to capture the Senate and save the House because the Democrats really do want to scrap the filibuster to get DC and Puerto Rico as states to reconfigure the Senate. A candidate at the top with greater discipline sure would help. His lack of discipline is not my fault.