The liberal media took a victory lap over this month’s anniversary of the 1977 Supreme Court case Wooley vs. Maynard. George and Maxine Maynard were Jehovah’s Witnesses living in New Hampshire who, when not out knocking on doors, engaged in “civil disobedience” against the admirable and quite badass state motto appearing on New Hampshire’s license plates: “Live Free or Die.” Maynard explained that “life is more valuable than freedom, to me.” Imaginably, Maynard also would have selected “Red” when faced with the famed “Red or Dead” question during the Cold War.

Of course, the liberals infesting American institutions such as the media and the judiciary are secular humanists who think all religions are goofy. They have no special attachment to the creed of the Jehovah’s Witnesses themselves, but assemble the idiosyncratic and unusual from all corners of society for use as a battering ram against regular Americans. The Left can’t allow folks to go around thinking “live free or die” is an acceptable credo, after all.

The question, as always, is about who occupies the periphery and who occupies the center of society. The media loves finding “exceptions” among all the special snowflakes and broken toys to challenge every rule. They perpetually root for whoever they perceive to be the “underdog” on the periphery. At this point in time, those occupying the rising periphery seem to be the transgendered and pedophiles, truly scraping the bottom of the barrel since everything else has already been legalized and encouraged.

These last few decades, the Left has focused on bending over backwards to accommodate everyone equally, especially when doing so comes at the expense of traditional Americans. The Left seeks to challenge what they see as the “power structure”–the Patriarchy, as they often call it. The mealy-mouthed David Brooks called this the “Protestant establishment,” circa 1945-64.

But if the Patriarchy does have power, or at least if it did at some point in the past, its dethronement had to have been at least somewhat consensual. Somewhere along the line, too many people lost their confidence in themselves, lost their ability to make choices–specifically, their ability to choose their own side.

Millennials always ask the question “who are you to judge?” “Judging people” is apparently the only remaining act that’s viewed as unacceptable. As a result, America has endured an endless Culture War waged by the Left–targets include state mottoes, flags, national anthems, statues–the list goes on. And often, the forces of patriotism and tradition tend to lose these battles. Mindbendingly, we’ve reached the point that anyone who defends patriotic displays in public gets shouted down as “emulating North Korea.” Hint: the actual problem with North Korean society doesn’t stem from their sense of loyalty or nationalism.

The only way to start winning the Culture War is to answer the Millennials head on: “I’m the one who judges, because I owe it to myself, and to those who came before me (in the “little platoons” of Edmund Burke), to step up to the plate and fill that role. Otherwise, no one else is going to look out for my interests. God helps those who help themselves.”