There are two opposing worldviews vying for the hearts and minds of Americans. One of these worldviews is conservatism. Conservatives believe in such concepts as limited government, low taxation, free-market economics, individual liberty, personal responsibility, constitutional sovereignty, and traditional American values that grow out of our Judeo-Christian heritage. The other worldview is liberalism, or in the language of its proponents, progressivism. Liberals believe in nanny government, high taxes, statist/socialist economics, control through regulation, entitlement, one-world government, and class envy, racial strife, and secular humanist values (There is no definite right or wrong—individuals must decide what is right or wrong for themselves).
One of these worldviews—conservatism—allowed America to become the most powerful, influential nation in the world with the highest standard of living in history. The other worldview—liberalism—is transforming America into a second-rate nation that is financially and morally bankrupt. With these facts in mind, one can easily discern that it matters which of these worldviews—conservatism or liberalism—eventually wins the battle for the hearts and minds of Americans.
Liberals are heavily favored in this epic struggle for several reasons. First, it is always easier to convince people to sit back and let the government take care of them than it is to convince them to take personal responsibility for the quality of their lives. Another reason liberals are favored in this contest is that people are hardwired to envy others who appear better off economically—even when their better standard of living is the result of their entrepreneurial spirit and positive work ethic. Yet another reason that liberals have the edge is that people are hardwired to blame others for their misfortunes as opposed to blaming themselves. These are just a few of the reasons the playing field tilts in favor of liberals, there are many more. However, for the sake of brevity I will skip directly to the bottom-line reason: liberals control the institutions that mold the values and worldviews of America’s children.
America’s public schools have become incubators for producing successive generations of liberals. Nothing about public education supports the development of a conservative worldview. Here is what that stalwart in the faith, J. Gresham Machen, had to say about this dilemma: “Place the lives of children in their formative years, despite the convictions of their parents, under the intimate control of experts appointed by the state, force them to attend schools where the higher aspirations of humanity are crushed out…and it is difficult to see how even the remnants of liberty can subsist.”
Public school students spend more than 30 hours per week for 12 years being indoctrinated by so-called “experts appointed by the state” against everything conservative parents stand for (i.e. limited government, low taxation, free-market economics, individual liberty, personal responsibility, constitutional sovereignty, and traditional American values). Frankly, if this situation is allowed to persist not only will conservatives lose the battle for the hearts and minds of Americans, they will deserve to lose.
As conservatives, we seem to think the battle is about electing the next President of the United States. But battles for the hearts and minds of the people are fought in the trenches at the local level, not in the White House or the halls of Congress. They are fought around the dinner table of individual American families. They are fought in how parents raise their children and what they teach them about right and wrong and responsible principles of living. But conservative parents are losing the battle for the hearts and minds of their children because at least six hours a day, five days a week, nine months out of the year they turn them over to liberal teachers and administrators who persistently undo any good parents are able to do in the comparatively little time they spend with their children.
Here is an undeniable fact: You cannot expect your children to internalize and accept your worldview when you allow them to be raised by teachers who either reject your values or compliantly go along to get along in a system that rejects your values. Christian schools, homeschools, and charter schools help somewhat in this situation, but collectively these alternatives to the public schools are the equivalent of a flea on an elephant. Most children of conservative parents in America attend public schools. This being the case, it is time for conservatives to start fighting at the grassroots level and do the hard work of transforming America’s public schools into institutions of learning rather than publicly-funded indoctrination centers that are better at producing compliant automatons with entitlement mentalities than critical-thinking, self-reliant, productive citizens.
