It was not part of their blood,
It came to them very late,
With long arrears to make good,
When the Saxon began to hate.

I have often jokingly wished that some kind of secret sign existed, like a Masonic emblem or peculiar handshake by which those of us conservatives who do not go about openly advertising our political affiliations to all and sundry might discretely identify a kindred spirit. Those of us in the real world have friends, neighbors, and co-workers who range across the political spectrum; Traditional good manners and consideration for those who didn’t share your beliefs once dictated a degree of ambiguity regarding political leanings, sexual orientation, and religious beliefs. This sense of discretion owed more to conventional good manners rather than cowardice, although a disinclination about being bashed about the head by a member of the Klantifa, harassed out of a restaurant, or a Twitter campaign to get one fired from employment are lately a very real possibility as a result of overtly advertising ones’ conservative sympathies.

They were not easily moved,
They were icy — willing to wait
Till every count should be proved,
Ere the Saxon began to hate.

Nevertheless, there are certain indicators of conservative, or at least a sympathy towards traditional social beliefs; one of those seems to be a familiarity with and affection for the poetry of Rudyard Kipling. I have no idea of why this should be so, other than the man wrote a deuce of a lot, was madly popular in his time and for a long while afterwards, and he wrote in an easily-comprehended vernacular, rather than language calculated for high-level intellectual effect. In any event, hardly a thread goes by in the more thoughtful and classically-inclined blogs that I favor that someone doesn’t quote The Gods of the Copybook Headings with regard to dire warnings, Tommy, The Grave of the Hundred Head, and The Ballad of East and West when it comes to the military, The Three-Decker in reference to popular literature, and the technologically-inclined are rather fond of The Sons of Martha.

But the Kipling verse that keeps coming to my mind more and more frequently over the last few weeks is The Wrath of the Awakened Saxon. As Casey Kasem used to say, in producing American Top 40 – the hits just keep on coming. The Betsy Ross flag carried by Washington’s Continental Army – now it’s considered racist. Tear down statues of Civil War generals, paint over murals of George Washinton! The Gadsden rattlesnake banner – white supremacist! Tea Party participant – oooh, racist! Want to secure the borders and purge fraudulent votes from election results – (wait for it) Super-duper ultra-racist, fascist and white supremacist, and about every other despicable ‘ist’ out there! Decline to provide bespoke professional services to a gay wedding, or indulge the delusions of someone suffering from body dysmorphia? Openly voice concern about sky-high rates of crime among urban minority neighborhoods in cities which are fiefdoms of the Democrat Party, object to late-pregnancy abortions, wear a MAGA hat in public … the tidal-spew of insult, abuse, doxing, and outright threats from the mainstream intellectual, political and media organs directed at ordinary, middle- and working-class flyover country Americans flows like a burst sewer main. It’s been bad for a decade, but this year, just in these last few weeks, and epitomized of late by the OMG! Squad (Omer, Occasio-Cortez, Tlaib, and Pressley) … it’s become nearly unbearable.

Their voices were even and low.
Their eyes were level and straight.
There was neither sign nor show
When the Saxon began to hate.

It was not preached to the crowd.
It was not taught by the state.
No man spoke it aloud
When the Saxon began to hate.

It can’t go on for very much longer like this. Everything once thought good, honorable, patriotic, fair and neighborly is under attack – vicious and prolonged attack. So far it’s been mostly words – the attempted assassination of Steve Scalise and fellow members of the Republican softball team, the attempted bombing of an ICE detention facility, and members of the Klantifa getting personally violent in venues where they are assured of the local government having their back being exceptions. But again – it can’t go on like this. Real, blood-shedding, personally damaging political violence directed against random ordinary Americans? I can’t see that going on for very much longer. The increasingly demented broad-band denigration of all that made this marvelous political experiment – the understanding and the mechanism through which a people could govern themselves in honesty and competence? There will be push-back to proggie insult and provocation. I can’t give a SWAG as to when and what will be the precipitating incident – but the certainty is out there.
Discuss as you will.

It was not suddenly bred.
It will not swiftly abate.
Through the chilled years ahead,
When Time shall count from the date
That the Saxon began to hate.
– Rudyard Kipling