As conservatives, we hear a lot about the concept of unity.  Let’s “set aside our differences, and get along.”  We need to “stop being divisive,” we’re told.  It doesn’t matter what you believe, or what you hold dear, because we need to just Come Together(tm).  We’ve got one big circus tent and oh, there’s room for everyone!  If you’re pro-abortion, you can still be conservative, apparently.  If you’re pro-amnesty and pro-gun control and pro-gay marriage and pro-Common Core and pro-Obamacare and pro-surveillance state, that’s okay.  If you say you’re a conservative, then who’s to say you aren’t, right?  We just need unity, so we can defeat the Left.

In the immortal words of Inigo Montoya, I do not think that word means what you think it means.  In fact, the whole concept of “unity” is a big, steaming, fertilizing heap of dung.  How effective are we at defeating the Left?  Judging by the current state of our nation, I think it’s safe to say that many conservatives took a lesson from Bugs Bunny: If you can’t beat ’em, join ’em.

Somehow, for many people the word “conservative” has become an a la carte breakfast.  I’ll take the sausage and the French toast, but leave off the hash browns and can I get those eggs scrambled instead of fried?  It’s not even enough to say you’re a conservative or Republican anymore.  The word means nothing.  We have to qualify it.  Constitutional conservative.  Liberty-minded conservative.  Paleoconservative.  Reagan conservative.  Goldwater conservative.  There are a hundred different types of conservatives now, because if you don’t like a piece of it, you can just skip that part,  or just make up your own entirely.  The thing is, no matter what flavor of conservative you claim to be, there are certain aspects that are part and parcel of the label.  You can make a thousand different kinds of bread, but somewhere in every recipe is some kind of flour.  You may like your bread with extras, you may like it without.  But without the flour?  No bread.

When someone says that they are a Mormon, for instance, one can assume that they do not pray to Allah.   When someone says they are Jewish, it’s a safe bet that they don’t consider Jesus Christ to be the Messiah.  In the same way, being a conservative means certain things.  It’s more than a Baskin-Robbins cone where you pick what ice cream goes in it.  It’s a core worldview.  It is the absolute bottom gut level of who we are.  Conservatives like me—pro-life, pro-gun, anti-gay marriage, etc.—have been told that our views are bigoted, that we are hateful and controlling and that we don’t favor equality.  We are preached to about how we aren’t tolerant or inclusive—and sadly, this often comes from other conservatives.  What some people don’t understand is that it’s not something that we pick up and put down as the mood strikes, or as the favoring winds blow.  What I believe does not change simply because someone thinks it should, or because they’re butthurt about what I think.

That’s really what we’re talking about, isn’t it?  We hear about how we should tolerate this or accept that.  My question is, why?  Why should I set aside my worldview for you?  I’m not running for office to represent you in our government. If you’re somehow okay with abortion while calling it a “choice,” that is your decision.   I’m not, and I make no apologies for that.  If you’re in favor of something that my moral and religious beliefs say is an abomination, that’s fine, but I’m not going to accept that belief for myself, and more importantly, I’m not going to help enable it in society.  I believe in the liberty to think what I want, and the responsibility to hold to that belief even when it’s unpopular.  That means I vote for things I agree with, and I vote against things I do not.  It means I vote for people whose belief system I approve of, because here’s some more ugly truth: I don’t need you to approve of my belief system, but if you wish to represent me and want my vote, then I need to approve of yours.  That’s not bigotry. It’s called having a moral compass.

This idea of moral courage is not a new one.  In fact, without the Founders exhibiting a lot of just that, we wouldn’t even be having this conversation.  But over time, we’ve been taught that morality is subjective, and that anyone who stands up against things that are disgusting and wrong must be hateful and bigoted.  As we slowly bought into this nonsense, our collective conscience has been seared.  How else could we have come to the point where we talk about the brutal dismembering of unwanted babies as a right?  How else could we take something that the Bible says God firebombed two entire cities for and congratulate those who choose to identify with it as being “heroes”?  How else could we ever even consider allowing a pedophile to see another sunset, let alone publicly call for legitimacy?  All of these things and so much more occur every day in our nation and yet you expect me to help enable them.  You expect me to help you pass laws to further hasten what I see as the nation’s moral and ethical decline.  But it’s about unity, you say.  It’s about getting electable candidates.  It’s about being accepting and tolerant.

…except, it’s not.  In fact, all of your rhetoric about unity and acceptance is really just a code for “You need to change your beliefs to agree with mine.”

I don’t need to approve of your beliefs on amnesty to stand next to you at a pro-life march.  I don’t need to agree with your position on capital punishment to consider you my friend.  But for some reason, that’s not true for some of you.  If we could just stop fighting, you say.  If we could just get people to get on board with amnesty or find a middle ground on abortion or agree with this and that and the other.  In other words, if we could just get everyone to think like we want them to.  The difference between you and I is that I don’t give a rat’s rectum if you agree with me.  It won’t change how I think, how I vote, or how I conduct myself.  Interestingly enough, it also won’t change another thing about me: I would give my life for your right to believe as you do.  Would you do the same for me?  Do you have the same courage of conviction?

How about this:  You can go fight for your beliefs.  I’ll fight for mine, even if it means that we never see another conservative lawmaker in this nation and I end up shot to death in a street like so many in Venezuela and the Ukraine right now.  Call me an intolerant bigot all you want.  I will not be tolerant of child murder.  I will not be tolerant while watching millions of people invade our country and take from us.  I will not tolerate my child being taught sexual perversion as ‘normal’.  I will not be silent, and I will not have my beliefs chipped away at by those who think I should ‘give a little to get a little.’  I will not comply, I will not compromise.  It’s called fortitude.

You can keep your unity.  I’ll keep my beliefs, my liberty, and my integrity.