From The “You Will Be Made To Care” Files

     The correlations among postures on contentious issues – for example, the pro-life position and the pro-Second Amendment rights position – is quite strong. Given that Smith is pro-life, the assumption that he’s also pro-firearms rights is a good one. The converse is also true.

     Which gives this particular contretemps more significance than it would have otherwise:

     Kyle Kashuv is going to prom. With a girl he doesn’t know. Who lives in another state. Kashuv is one of the few survivors of the Marjory Stoneman Douglas shooting who publicly supports the Second Amendment. He has gained a substantial Twitter following based largely on his refusal to toe the party line on gun control, or engage in the negative rhetoric of his classmates on the left. But now Twitter has gained him something else: a date.

     Last week a girl from Nebraska, who goes by Fidan on Twitter, sent Kyle a direct message asking, “How many retweets for prom?!!” Kyle responded, “5K,” adding “Also I don’t have a tux.” Fidan tweeted out this exchange with the caption, “PLEASE HELP ME OUT. A DREAM COME TRUE.” And Twitter leapt to the challenge.

     Within a day Fidan had her 5,000 retweets. To tackle Kyle’s other dilemma — the lack of a tux — Fidan set up a GoFundMe page with a goal of raising $1,700 to cover the cost of the tuxedo and Kyle’s plane travel to and from Nebraska. She met her goal within six days. But what about Kyle? Would he actually go?

     Kyle’s answer came as a result of an unfortunate plot twist in this little romance. In amongst all the well-wishers and retweeters came Planned Parenthood senior advisor Elizabeth Thorp, like some kind of anti-fairy godmother, telling Fidan: “Hard pass, sweet girl. You can do better.”

     The linked story follows this ugly little drama to its current state.

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     There’s more significance to matter synopsized above than the contemptible spectacle of a Planned Parenthood employee offering unsolicited, mean-spirited “advice” to a young woman she doesn’t know over something she has no stake in. It’s a piercing illustration of the quoted phrase in the title of this piece.

     The Left is determined to inflict as much suffering as possible on anyone it regards as an adversary. It identifies adversaries according to a simple test: If you’re in favor of any one of the following propositions:

1. Homosexuality is a perversion.
2. Unborn babies have a right to life.
3. Individuals have a right to own firearms.
4. Christianity is a sound and wholesome creed.
5. The belief that one is “transgender” is an emotional disorder.
6. Government-run schools constitute a national indoctrination scheme.
7. Marriage is a contract between a biological man and a biological woman.
8. True, constructive charity is an individual impulse, not a government program.
9. The U.S. is entitled to enforceable borders and a specific system for immigration.
10. Individuals have a right to express their opinions despite the contrary opinions of others.

     ...you’re an enemy of the Left and must be made to suffer as greatly as possible and for as long as possible.

     It’s about making you care. It’s not intended to compel you to adopt the Left’s position on the issue of interest, but to notify you that every time you open your mouth, Leftists will do their best to make you wish you hadn’t.

     Moreover, the list above is not exhaustive; there are other positions that will trigger the Left’s punitive impulses just as effectively. In all probability, being a Gentle Reader of Liberty’s Torch qualifies you for as much punishment as the Left can ladle out.

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     The many comments on the state of America’s “cold civil war” all point back to one phenomenon. It reaches into the most private and apolitical aspects of an individual’s life. There is no “Geneva Convention” applicable to American life or discourse. Everyone is a front-line combatant, at least in the opinion of the Left. Consider this next-to-unbelievable article as the Left’s High Command’s objective in that war.

     Economist Herbert Stein is famous for having said that “If something cannot continue indefinitely, it will stop.” “Something” in that sentence is a true wildcard. One can replace it with any phenomenon whatsoever. That includes the Left’s total-war attitude toward its identified opponents. The nation cannot endure this state of affairs, which affects every aspect of American life, forever.

     But there appears to be no way to arrive at an armistice. The “agreement to disagree” is gone and resists being resurrected. This is entirely congruent with the Left’s unstated though quite exclusive creed:

     The secular left in America has its own religion -- the state. Worship of the state and the self cannot tolerate dissent or competition, and therefore is moving aggressively to shut down, silence, and drive from the town square any competing ideas. Evil has been preaching tolerance, but now that it is dominate, it seeks to silence good. [ Erick Erickson ]

     Theirs is a faith that tolerates no dissent, however mildly expressed.

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     There is a positive aspect to this. Leyden and Teixeira might eventually regret having stated their core position – i.e., that the Right must be squashed, deprived of any foothold in the nation’s politics or its discourse:

     The Republican Party over the past 40 years has maneuvered itself into a position where they are the bad guys on the wrong side of history. For a long time, they have been able to hide this fact through a sophisticated series of veils, invoking cultural voodoo that fools a large enough number of Americans to stay in the game....America finally needs to take the Republican Party down for a generation or two. Not just the presidency. Not just clear out the U.S. House. Not just tip back the Senate. But fundamentally beat the Republicans on all levels at once, including clearing out governorships and statehouses across the land.

     Thus, the Left has made its position clear: If you’re a conservative or a Republican partisan, you’re a bad guy, an enemy, and must be cast into the outer darkness. You must be allowed no part, no voice. And you must be reminded, at every opportunity, of how deeply the Left hates you for the crime of differing with them.

     It’s time we took them at their word. We in the Right must resolve to fight as they do: a outrance. There are no longer any rules. There certainly isn’t a threshold of incivility or cruelty that anyone need respect. Elizabeth Thorp’s treatment of Kyle and Fidan makes that plain.

     It’s not just about a prom date.