Why We Fight. The War Against Brain Worms

Man your foxhole, no one past!

Sometimes in the middle of a battle, it’s important for a deep breath, a respite, a refocusing. The mental and emotional toll that a war can take on it’s fighters is sometimes as important as the casualties inflicted by either side. The will to fight is essential to winning…and a lack of will can defeat even the best equipped armies. Get the analogy? Good… it’s time to take a step back and remember why we are fighting for our country, and what we are fighting for.

I’m grateful that in a few short months, tens of thousands of you have joined me in this battle to preserve what we love. I’ll be honest, I often wrestle with whether I should keep speaking out, is my voice really making a difference, am I loading heaps of stress on myself and others to exist in the echo-chamber of rage? After all, in my line of work, continuing to speak out can cost opportunites post congress…lobbying can bring home millions of dollars, but lobby firms don’t want former members who keep expressing opinions since after all, you need access to your former colleagues. I don’t have any desire to be a lobbyist, but there are other opportunities that I’ve had to forfeit because of my activism. Ever wonder why former and retiring members of Congress stay quiet? Now you know. I don’t say this for sympathy, not at all. I say this because even I have to occasionally take a deep breath and remember what this is all about.

There’s seemingly not a day that goes by where I don’t hear of a friend that has decided to give up on the fight, or I see someone I know embrace the dark and seductive message of populism and Trump. I know that each and every one of you feel the same way. Which brings me back to the why…the purpose here. More on that in a second.

When this nation was founded…a group of soon-to-be-Americans made a decision, and a scary one at that. They would commit treason against the most powerful government and military in existence. They decided to rebel, and declare their independence. How crazy is that?! The arrogance to think they could tell the crown to go away? Nuts! Even many of their fellow colonialists maintained a loyalty to the crown…people close to them. I personally believe they assumed this treason would mean their deaths, and the hope was that eventually, maybe in 50 years, this rebellion would take hold. A decision to give your life…everything you know, have, and will ever inhabit on this world, all for the sake of someone else. Wow.

Through every war in our history, young men and women made that ultimate sacrifice. They didn’t want to…but they were willing to. All, to leave us in a place where peace surrounds us, oceans protect us, and we have the luxury of being swallowed up by our own internal drama because we don’t need to fear a more powerful enemy.

During WW2, my grandfather spent a year in the US training for his ultimate mission in Germany, a mission which we still do not fully understand. My grandfather passed away in 2003, shortly before I started my own training to be the first Kinzinger to wear a uniform since him. He could never talk about his service, and the one time he committed to me to try, he broke down in tears once he began describing France. Only the snippets of stories that came out to his kids were all we ever learned…but we knew that he operated behind German lines, learned to speak perfect German, and at one point lost many people close to him. His sacrifice was mental…the horrors of the fight followed him until he passed.

I tell these stories to bring us to this moment. The battle for the heart and soul of our democracy feels a bit overwhelming. Unlike a real war, we can’t measure progress in meters or kills, because it’s an invisible fight for minds. In that sense, our perception of progress exists in the fog of war…a poll here, an anecdote there. Small battlefield reports that give us a glimpse of a moment and a location but not the broad picture. On good days we may feel we are winning, on bad days the opposite. However, the fight goes on.

I believe the war for our country in today’s realm is just as important as any physical fight we have engaged in. The current battle is going to last for ten months, but the war will certainly continue after that. We’re fight a mind virus, brain worms, that have spread and chewed on our fellow Americans who have been convinced that the discomfort they feel is part of a grand scheme of the “deep state” to control them and destroy their way of life. It seems ludicrous to us, it seems very real to them. Because behind the message is a virus constantly seeking new hosts to infect and spread among. We have the anecdote, although it is much weaker than the virus, the host must agree to let it work. It’s much harder to fight a virus than to let it spread. It’s much easier to let the darkness and mistrust overtake you than to fight it with truth and light. But we must.

I get asked constantly “what can we do in this fight.” My answer is simple. Man your foxhole. Don’t let the enemy past your position, protect your mind, recommit yourselves to the principle of democracy so the darkness doesn’t infect you. You can jump out of your foxhole and charge a hill…maybe you feel like you should. That’s fine, but when you get hit, don’t let the pain and discomfort take you out of the fight. It’s more important we have people holding their ground than taking new ground, if taking new ground means discouragement, heaviness, and ultimately surrender.

Enough with the analogies. The bottom line is this…are we willing to ally ourselves with people who are different? I still consider myself center-right. I am amazed at the many people who are shocked that I haven’t become some left wing activist because I oppose Trump, the GOP and facism. The two are not connected in my mind, so why would any tribe, right or left, demand you shed everything you believe to fight with them? Its nonsense.

If we truly believe in democracy, beyond lip service or some synonym for “anti-maga” then we should welcome diversity of thought and beliefs. Isn’t that what democracy is all about? Differences? Over my time I have realized some of the beliefs I’ve had were wrong, everyone holds wrong beliefs somewhere, but we don’t know where, or we wouldn’t believe them. Only through access to thought diversity can we refine our belief system to become better and better.

In this war for our country, we need to make alliance with different groups. In WW2, we fought WITH the Soviets (still a bit mind blowing to me) and the UK and US often had competing war goals. But they crushed the Nazi war machine and the world is better for it. Let’s create a new version of the allies, so we can likewise tell heroic stories of how we crushed the mind virus of facism together, and celebrate the differences we have among us.

One last thought. No one thinks they’re the bad guy. Among our coalition will be people on all sides of every divisive debate. It makes our alliance difficult, after all the enemy doesn’t have that inconvenience. They just all pledge allegiance to a man. We can’t afford petty division at such a perilous time, or we may yearn for the day we could disagree…

I’m adding a couple of polls if you could vote in them. I’m interested in understanding where we stand as a team at the moment: