We Don't Really Know

First, a housekeeping note. Yesterday, I mentioned the scorecard issue among conservatism and said on radio that Heritage Action had not scored the omnibus. They did score the omnibus and will shake up their scorecard. I continue to think, however, that when Kevin McCarthy, whose lifetime score is a 60%, is now scoring 94%, the scorecard is not measuring conservatism, but being a Republican loyalist. For that matter, Elise Stefanik has a 91% now, but her lifetime score is 50%. The average score for a Republican is 94% on the scorecard. I hope Heritage Action gets tougher on the scorecard. The organization is great and does not have the problems groups like the American Conservative Union have.

Second, I want to go back to something from earlier this week and, believe it or not, I want to leave the partisanship out of it.

The Quinnipiac Poll asked Americans what they would do if the United States were invaded like Ukraine.

Over sixty percent of Republicans said they would stay and fight. Slightly less than sixty percent of Independents said the same. Over fifty percent of Democrats said they would flee. Women more than men said they would flee and that impacted all the numbers.

The land invasion of the United States, despite “Red Dawn,” is something that is not going to happen. We are far more likely to get nuked. Neither Canada nor Mexico have the military might to invade us and Russia and China do not have the resources to cover and hold a nation of 330 million people on the fourth largest landmass whose people possess more guns than the total national population.

While I am prone to give in to the gut partisan reaction that “of course those people would flee,” I actually want to remind us all of something.

We are extraordinarily blessed as a nation and have not, since 1812, seen such an invasion. Even in World War II, outside of Pacific territories including Hawaii, domestic economic disruption was more of a thing than military incursion.

Frankly, unless we really did get invaded, none of you really know what you would do. It is all fun and games to speculate and trash talk political opponents until the sirens are going off and well-trained men with guns are parachuting from the sky into your neighborhood.

We really don’t know until the moment arises and confronts us. Quinnipiac, I think, failed as a credible pollster to ask that question.

Our Lord and Savior chose twelve men to be His Apostles. One of them saw the miracles and heard the voice of God and still betrayed Christ. Another saw the miracles, saw the transfiguration, saw Moses and Elijah with the transfigured Christ, and heard the voice of God. Only a few days later, he denied Christ three times before a rooster crowed.

Before you puff up your chest and say you know for sure what you would do and look with disdain on those who say they’d flee, please understand both that it is a hypothetical scenario that most likely will never happen and also Peter told Jesus he’d always have Jesus’s back.

Events change things and only when we are confronted by history do we really see the mettle of the man. I know a man who wanted so badly to go off to war. He joined the Army ready to go kill jihadists in Iraq and peed himself in a firefight. Then there were the girls at Columbine who professed their belief in Christ as the shooters shot them. And there is the comedian turned President turned war hero of Ukraine who even now Vladimir Putin and his propagandists malign to discredit him.

We just don’t know till history beckons us and I don’t want to make partisan points now on those who stake out a position on a hypothetical that will not come to pass. Patriotism and bravery sometimes stir up in unlikely people confronted by the moment. But yes, I do think, we should fight for our country and we should have as many guns and as much ammo as we can afford.