Red and Blue

“He’s got red, white and blue flying high on the farm, Sempre Fi tattooed on his left arm.
Spent a little more in the store for a tag in the back that says USA.
He won’t buy nothin’ that he can’t fix, with WD-40 and a Craftsman wrench.
He ain’t prejudiced, he’s just, made in America.
Born in the heartland, raised up a family, of King James and Uncle Sam.”

Made in America – Toby Keith

I was in the retail car business (car dealerships) for 25 years from 1978-2003. I held various positions during that time starting in accounting and finance, since I am a CPA. That said, I always understood we were in a sales business. There was a saying, old but true, that “nothing happens until you sell a car”. You can’t service it, finance it, sell parts for it or anything else until you sell it.

I have been a lifelong Republican and conservative. Still, I did not want to sell only to Republicans or hire only Republicans. You wouldn’t be able to survive if you eliminated half of your market from the start. If I was hiring a mechanic, I cared not who they voted for in the last election. What was relevant is how good a mechanic the person was. My dealerships did not take political positions. We took positions on how our dealership was better than the one down the road and our products were superior as well.

It seems to me that much has changed since then.

Yes, the country is much more divided and the divisions are greater and deeper. But somehow, this has led to everything being either red or blue.

We know there are red and blue states, red and blue cities and red and blue counties. But now it seems, there are red and blue pillows, red and blue soft drinks, red and blue airlines and red and blue search engines. There are red and blue judges, red and blue schools, red and blue teachers, red and blue universities. There have always been red and blue news outlets, but now there are red and blue sitcoms, red and blue movies and red and blue documentaries. There are even red and blue churches, synagogues and charities.

I really don’t understand it. Why did Coca-Cola feel the need to identify with either side of the political aisle? Why does a church decide that “social justice” is now the true meaning of biblical teaching? Why does a school decide that teaching gender fluidity is more fundamental than mathematics?

Whether I understand it or not is irrelevant. Whether I would do this with my business (I would not) is equally irrelevant. It is happening. And we must all deal with the world as it is rather than the world as we would like it to be.

There are far more institutions and big businesses that have chosen to side with the left than the right. For reasons we can discuss at a later time, they fear the left more than they fear the right. That needs to change.

Part of changing that is to change with whom we associate and do business. Had I chosen to make my car dealerships the pro-life, pro-gun, pro-Reagan dealerships, many of my customers on the left would have deserted me in droves. We on the right need to start doing the same.

One obvious example is Google. Google is a well-known leftist company (also a monopoly that in my opinion should be broken up regardless of their political philosophy) that has fired employees simply for donating to Donald Trump. I never knowingly use Google products. Duckduckgo is a much better search engine because they do not color your searches with a leftist bent to hide information with which Google does not agree. And, you have the added benefit of not lining the pockets of a company that has a mission of destroying much of what you value.

That is but one example. I wish it weren’t so, but we on the right must fight back with our dollars and our eyeballs. If a company promotes leftism, you probably can find another company with similar products or services that does not. If your kids are being taught that Abraham Lincoln was a racist and a bad man, switch to a school that teaches truth. If your pastor preaches the virtues of BLM from the pulpit, move to one that doesn’t.

We don’t have to find “conservative” alternatives, although there is nothing wrong with that. An alternative that is neither red or blue is fine too. There are some of those left out there.

We must stop being meek about our views or we will be run over by an authoritarian leftist culture and your views will be made illegal or otherwise relegated to unspoken thoughts. Fight back! We are in a war for the future of America. Fortunately at this point, the weapons of that war are generally limited to speech, thought, dollars, eyeballs, culture and voting. You possess those weapons. Use them.

I remain respectfully,
Congressman John Campbell
Drive fast & live free