One of the challenges with the conservative movement is that it struggles to define itself in any way other than in terms of what it opposes: leftist ideology. What is the conservative vision? Is it simply to oppose the Left? That is not overly helpful, and if we are truly going to see progress made towards a righteous county, state, and nation, we must know what we are working towards, not merely what we oppose. Without that clear vision, what we oppose today might be what we promote tomorrow. Indeed, the conservative movement has often found itself in that very situation.
Recent examples of the conservative movement’s efforts to resist the Left illustrate this problem. In two of these cases, the conservatives claim to be fighting against the Left, all the while promoting big government and an unbiblical vision for society. As I mentioned last week, the infatuation with humanistic law is a malady infecting Republican and conservative politicians just as much as anyone, and the solution to every problem seems to be a new law.
Mastriano’s ‘Free Speech’ Bill
In December, Sen. Doug Mastriano announced that “he will soon introduce a historic bill to protect the free speech of Pennsylvanians from undue restriction and censorship on large social media platforms.” The bill would require large social media platforms “to publish and consistently apply standards for user censoring, shadow-banning, and de-platforming.”
The impetus for the bill seems well-intentioned enough, but it suffers from the problem of nearly every Harrisburg initiative: an unwavering commitment of relying on the civil government to solve our societal problems via positive law.
“The recently released Twitter files have revealed what many of us had already known,” Mastriano said. “Big Tech oligarchs in Silicon Valley are subjectively banning and censoring what they deem to be ‘misinformation.’ My bill will hold these social media platforms accountable and ensure that all social media users in Pennsylvania are treated fairly, regardless of their political beliefs. Free speech must be defended regardless of whether we agree with that speech or not.”
But Big Tech oligarchs are not the problem here. A system of civil government with positive law, bureaucratic power-grabbing, and market manipulation is. Oligarchs simply abuse the corrupt system created by the politicians. They are not the head of the snake – our unbiblical civil government is – and focusing our attention on how the Big Tech oligarchs are the problem is merely a diversion.
The main thing the Twitter files revealed was not the problem with Big Tech oligarchs, but the problem with civil government (e.g., the FBI) manipulation of social media. Mastriano thinks that problem can be solved with more government manipulation of social media via laws and regulations which do not apply to all businesses equally (only “large social media platforms”). This is a case of asking us to trust the civil government to solve the very problems it creates. It is also a case of applying unjust weights and measures by enacting a law to apply to the “great” but not the “small.” There should be one law for all, and our civil magistrates should be impartial: “You shall do no injustice in court. You shall not be partial to the poor or defer to the great, but in righteousness shall you judge your neighbor” (Leviticus 19:15).
The civil government should get out of the business of regulating “large” social media companies, notwithstanding the poor business practices of some social media giants. If the American people were actually persuaded to vote for an old man in a Delaware basement because of tweets and social media posts, no amount of “free speech” bills are going to salvage this nation.
Putting Makeup on a Pig
Pennsylvania Senate Bill 84, a bipartisan measure, would remove a section from the Public School Code that bars teachers from wearing religious symbols while on the job. Yet again, the Harrisburg mess is on full display. Making hundreds of laws, year after year; tweaking hundreds of laws, year after year.
The problem with the government school system is not that Mrs. Smith is not allowed to wear her Hindu pin on her blouse. The problem is that the whole system is anti-Christian, statist, and socialistic. The government school system of today is the product of Horace Mann and Marxist thought. It needs to be defunded and abolished. It doesn’t need laws regulating the jewelry of schoolteachers.
If this bill passes, what have our lawmakers accomplished? Nothing, other than making them feel better about themselves. Once again, the problem with our educational systems is that the government is involved in them – naturally, more government involvement will not solve that problem.
DeSantis’ Error
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, a conservative favorite, is another example of conservatives making their claim to fame opposition to the Left, while in the meantime continuing to promote and endorse unbiblical systems and measures.
DeSantis’ quest to reclaim K-12 government education from wokesters in his state centered on preventing sexual indoctrination of children under a certain age. (What about the students over that certain age?) He was lauded as a hero in the conservative movement for championing laws to govern the government school system, thus validating the socialist practice of forcing people to pay for the state to indoctrinate the next generation in a “neutral” educational worldview.
Now DeSantis is looking to increase government manipulation of college education. During his Jan. 3 inauguration speech, DeSantis said, “We must ensure that our institutions of higher learning are focused on academic excellence and the pursuit of truth, not the imposition of trendy ideologies.”
In order to impose the proper ideologies, as opposed to the “trendy” ones, DeSantis is utilizing Florida’s Stop WOKE Act to control what government-subsidized colleges can teach.
I am opposed to the unbiblical ideologies DeSantis is targeting, but the solution is not getting the government more and more involved in every area of life, including education. (DeSantis is also calling for the state to spend more money on the socialistic institution of government-subsidized K-12 education.)
Author and Generations Radio host Kevin Swanson was correct when he said: “DeSantis…needs to get out of the college business altogether. It reduces to our stooges versus their stooges…The free market needs to determine when colleges are worthwhile. And let’s just let the free market pop the college bubble. Let the whole college scene blow up in the great depression of 2023 to 2030. Let’s just let it go. Let’s not try to reform them. Let’s just let the whole thing dissolve…The college bubble needs to pop. And these political conservatives need to just defund all the universities in the state of Florida – [and] anywhere else – and that is the only possible solution. Let the free market determine what’s going to survive when it comes to a useful form of higher education.”
A Clear Vision
The path forward will not be blazed by reacting to the Left with slightly less offensive humanistic measures. It will be blazed by setting a clear course towards a Christian society, based on the Bible and biblical law. Until politicians like Mastriano and DeSantis begin operating on a platform of biblical law, they will only propagate the problems. If the conservative movement is led by these men, we will continue to see government manipulation of the market and government-subsidized education propped up and supported by countless humanistic laws. But these institutions are not worth conserving, and until conservatives embrace the only proper standard (i.e., the Bible) for what is worth conserving, we will continue to confusedly crawl about in a statist society.
Chris Hume is the managing editor of The Lancaster Patriot and host of The Lancaster Patriot Podcast. He can be reached at chris@thelancasterpatriot.com.
If stoning adulterous, I would think that Trump should be first in line. That would save the government a lot and tax payers a lot of money as well as those that donate to me.
Assuming these articles are for real, I can support stoning if former Pres Donald Trump is first in line
Will he be?