The Closing Conservative Mind

Not sure if you knew this, but Georgia Governor Brian Kemp is going to Davos, Switzerland, to speak to the World Economic Forum.

I really had not paid attention to it until I put up a picture on Instagram last night of my experience emceeing Governor Kemp’s inaugural gala and someone commented how he wished the Governor wasn’t going to Davos.

I saw some of the usual nutters who believe the world is controlled by lizard people venting about this on Twitter, but it is seeping into other minds. One of the loud voices on Twitter against Kemp going is Emerald Robinson, who parted ways with NewsMax after alleging on Twitter that the COVID vaccines “contain a bioluminescent marker called LUCIFERASE so that you can be tracked. Read the last book of the New Testament to see how this ends.”

I’d submit that if you’re on her side on Kemp going to Davos, you might need a reality check.

Also, Donald Trump went twice. He went in 2020 and 2018.

You’ll be unsurprised to learn that many of the people outraged about Kemp had nothing to say about Trump going. You’ll also be unsurprised to learn that many of the most outraged were also opposed to Brian Kemp in 2022’s gubernatorial primary, so they should best be ignored.

But there’s more to say here.

There really is part of the conservative movement that has decided to close off its mind. They have decided we should not engage people who disagree with us. They have decided we should not listen to people who disagree with us.

That is exactly what the left does.

Brian Kemp has shown over four years that he is his own man. He is no more going to take marching orders from Klaus Schwab than from Donald Trump. And the idea that we should not engage with people who disagree with us should offend everyone’s sensibilities. Have we given up on persuasion and winning people over with our ideas?

The man who closed down his state last and opened first over COVID is going into the lions’ den of people who’d prefer us all to be masked and locked down in perpetuity. Maybe he will not be able to convince them of anything. But to condemn him for going is bonkers.

Lastly, every person on the planet is made in the image and likeness of God. Because of that, from each person, we have something we can learn from, even as we might disagree on some, most, or all issues. But to deride someone for engaging with others made in the image and likeness of our Creator should be a tendency actual conservatives avoid.

As so many people are getting turned off by wokeness and the secular, pagan cults growing out there, we need to engage more, not less. We should encourage engagement as a missional and evangelical exercise of principled conservative ideas. We should have more conservatives willing to go tell the elite at Davos that we, not they, have the ideas for the future.

Also, Swiss milk chocolate really is fantastic, and I hope he brings me back some.