No one likes to feel uncomfortable.

Scratch that. Those weird people who climb radio towers and abandoned buildings and then hang off the side for YouTube views and TikTok clicks – those people seem to enjoy being uncomfortable.

For the rest of us, being uncomfortable is…well…an uncomfortable feeling.

For conservatives, being uncomfortable can often be something we avoid at nearly all costs. The American Dream for most of us embraces the notion of being comfortable in our lifestyle, our community, and within our families. Even if it’s not exactly apple pie and picket fences that we want individually, we all strive for the peace they represent.

Unfortunately, these days aren’t very peaceful. The progressive left has decided that peace is racist, sexist, homophobic and a bunch of other made-up words that mean you suck. You will be made to care, or you will be erased.

It’s an uncomfortable time to be a conservative. If you object to pornographic materials in your child’s classroom, you’re a domestic terrorist. If you say a man can’t biologically be a woman, you’re a bigot. If you say you’d like to see a few years’ worth of studies before you allow the government to force an experimental vaccine into your body, you’re a science denier.

We’ve seen adult children turn against their own parents simply because those parents voted for a man none of them even know personally. We’ve seen black Americans be denied service in restaurants by white liberals, simply for having the audacity to be conservative. Progressives feel quite comfortable using horrendous terms like “nazi” and “terrorist” to describe their fellow Americans who have done nothing but verbalize differing opinions.

We no longer live in the age of Ronald Reagan and Tip O’Neil, political archrivals sitting down for a glass of whiskey at the end of the day simply to enjoy each other’s company as friends. Nowadays, to befriend someone on the other side of the aisle is tantamount to treason. They have deemed half this country evil, and the fallout has been brutal.

It’s been disheartening, and conservatives have plenty to complain about, certainly.

But complaining isn’t getting us anywhere. It’s time to stop whining and start doing. This is a new era in politics. It is ugly, brutal, and often childish. Conservatives have traditionally responded by retreating. We keep allowing the progressive left to seize more territory, as we shrink ours. We depart from entertainment culture, calling it too trashy. We depart from public schools, calling them hopelessly overrun. We depart from our local political positions, calling it a waste of time. We’ve left so much to the left, then we turn around and lament how much of American culture they own.

Charles Darwin wrote, “It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent. It is the one that is most adaptable to change.” 

For everything he was wrong about, he was surely right about this. Especially when it comes to political survival.

Conservatives have not yet adapted to this new cultural reality. Too many of us are playing by the old rules of decorum and agreeability. We don’t want to be uncomfortable, nor do we really wish to make others uncomfortable. We want to be left alone to live our lives, and to ignore people who live their lives in ways we might not appreciate (as they can ignore us).

That is no longer an option.  The landscape has changed, and so must our maps. We are navigating a completely different kind of world than our grandparents and parents. We’ve let our agreeability push us out of nearly all of the most influential aspects of our society. When it is more publicly celebrated to have a “pride” flag in a second-grade classroom than an American flag, we have a problem.

It’s time for us to adapt to this new landscape. It’s no use lamenting the way things used to be. It’s time to accept the way things are and develop a strategy to wrestle back the culture. We can do it. It’s not too late. Look at what parents across the country have been able to do in their public schools. Thousands of parents won seats on their school boards, and are now making cultural changes big and small. It’s not the whole war, but it is an important battlefront.

Conservatives can’t be afraid to make other people uncomfortable. We can’t be afraid to be uncomfortable ourselves. The other side has no intentions of obeying the rules, so let’s adjust and respond accordingly.

That means being bolder about our opinions. It means getting involved at a local level – at your school board meetings, city council meetings, even parade planning committees. Anywhere public plans are being made, conservatives need to get involved.

It also means supporting entertainment and media that pulls away from progressive strongholds. Just today, I canceled my DirectTV subscription after discovering they’d dropped Newsmax from their lineup (very conveniently, just as we start the ramp-up for the 2024 elections). That’s an enormous savings for my bank account, and now I can direct that money to content creators who are doing the jobs the mainstream media refuses to do. This new golden age of direct engagement allows us to pick and choose exactly who we want to support with our dollars. We can subscribe to the newsletters of our favorite reporters and personalities, patronize our favorite Rumble channels, and support the efforts of conservative outlets (like ours) to circumvent the traditional ad model and avoid the censorship traps set by Big Tech.

That’s why we here at RedState offer our VIP program. It keeps us independent, and assures we can continue to expose the lies of the progressive media and add to the national conversation without fear of retribution. It helps us protect free speech.

So I’ll end with this…you can be a part of helping us adapt to this new reality and this changing future. The left thinks this is the right wing of thirty years ago. They are not prepared for the moves we are making. Let’s keep surprising them.

Each RedState VIP and VIP Gold membership lessens our reliance on Big Tech and allows us to continue this critical work. We know that the Biden economy is affecting everyone’s bottom line, so with the promo code SAVEAMERICA you’ll get 40% off your VIP membership.

By becoming a RedState VIP member, you’ll not only directly support us in changing minds and winning those ideological battles, but you’ll also get exclusive columns and videos from Andrew Malcolm, Jeff Charles, myself, and more.

P.S. – While VIP members have access to a wealth of exclusive content, VIP Gold subscribers get even more. With VIP Gold, not only is your direct support doubled, but VIP Gold members have Gold access across the entire Townhall Media family (Townhall, RedState, PJ Media, and more) – a nearly $300 value.

Join the revolution!