Although it is true in one way of the positions of those more conservative, the reality is that liberal and progressive positions are moving targets. Ronald Reagan famously quipped that he did not leave the Democratic Party, it left him. He was correct. The party he had known had changed; its values had changed as well as its positions. Whether you are happy about this or sad, you cannot dispute it. It is a fact of life. Now the same thing is happening. The party of Franklin Delano Roosevelt became the party of Hubert Humphrey became the party of Bill Clinton became the party of Barak Obamma. You can no longer say that about Joseph Biden. He is not the face of the Democratic Party of today and he will not be the face of its future. In some respects he is playing catch up with a party and with leaders and positions that are evolving far and away from where they were.
Consider the likes of somebody like Bill Maher. Like Reagan before him, he complains that he has not changed, his positions have not changed, but the world has. Now the woke moniker has become the herald of changes that make even liberals wince. The same thing happened to Richard John Neuhaus. Once he was considered on the leftward fringe of politics and religion but now many look at him as having changed and become the voice of conservatism. He insisted that he did not change but, like others, he admitted the world around him had. For him the issue was abortion. For those today the issue might be gender identity.
This is the problem with progressivism -- it is not a position but a worldview. It is constantly changing by design. What 3-5 years ago might not be imagined becomes the new and normative position of those who would lay claim to the term liberal. But that is not how it once was. The reality is the Joe Biden is not the only one who is trying to catch up. All of those who stand against conservatism are united in a quest to keep up and keep step with the constantly evolving marks of loyalty to the liberal and progressive viewpoint. The danger is that no one can pin down where this movement will lead but so many have pinned themselves and their future to it -- wherever it may lead.
The debates are not simply debates over positions and issues. It is a worldview that is in dispute -- a view of history as well as the present and future. We will not battle this out by attacking and defending an issue or a specific position. We must battle where the war is actually being fought and that is worldview. That is why the Christian in the midst of this is so often swept up in a movement that is going places where nobody can see the ending. That is why the values of the home and the values and dogmas of the Church are so important. It is not like we missed the cues. We knew it was coming. Our youth are more influenced by their peers, teachers, social media, and culture not because they have chosen these voices and values over those they got in the home but because the home did not articulately and passionately impart a worldview that was consistent with Scripture and tradition. They left because they had not been catechized into this worldview but only catechized into certain dogmas. That is the failure of home and Church. If we are to keep our children in the faith, we must not only teach them the faith but impart to them a Christian worldview that will prevent them from being sucked into a movement that is like a moving train whose track is being laid in front of the speeding locomotive but without any clue where it will end.
Conservatives have got to stop arguing nuance of positions -- as if this will do anything more than merely slow the inevitable. We must engage the woke, liberal, and progressive worldview at its core and center and offer an alternative. Or, we will lose. We will lose our children, our culture, our politics, and our country. Even some who were once the liberals are waking up to an America they do not recognize and did not see coming.
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