By K. Wesley Carroll

As we draw nearer to, quite possibly, the most important midterm election of my lifetime, I sincerely hope that voters are now paying attention to the fact that elections have consequences — and, as of late, dire ones.

While skyrocketing inflation, exploding violent crime, and climbing fuel prices began almost immediately after the present administration took office, the feelings of the ever-oppressed groups that inhabit this country have been assuaged in that the “bad orange man” isn’t at the helm anymore. When people do not take the time to learn what a candidate stands for, they get exactly what they vote for. The talkingheads of mainstream and social media are in a constant state of spin, attempting to normalize the abominations that the Left is currently participating in and what our pandering leaders in Washington are affirming. Democrats are perpetually groveling to the “underserved” in order to obtain votes. If you disagree with this point, I’d ask you to Google “Dylan Mulvaney visits White House.”

Recently, Matt Walsh of The Daily Wire exposed a story about Vanderbilt Medical Center (yes, that Vanderbilt) performing “gender-affirming surgeries” on minor children, and the considerable monetary windfall it scores by performing them. This past Friday, Walsh hosted a “Rally to End Child Mutilation” in Nashville. A large turnout of supporters was there, in addition to several counter-protesters and people who decided to show up merely to scream profanities in lieu of presenting a rational opposing point of view. To reiterate my point about the media’s spin on any issue it disagrees with, our own local CBS affiliate, News Channel 5, breathlessly reported the headline, “Thousands rally near State Capital to end medical care for transgender kids.” As though a transgender person cannot get a flu shot or be treated for a broken leg. The Nashville Scene boasted this headline: “Anti-Trans Rally led by Matt Walsh Brings Right Wing Media Stars to Nashville.” However, one would have to dig fairly deep into the story to find the actual name and purpose of the rally. This is the media’s ultimate goal — report just enough truth to satisfy an ever-narrowing public attention span, and just like that you’ve won by spinning the story in your direction.

When a biological female “identifies” as a male and makes the decision to fully “transition,” she is labeled as a transgender male. These decisions can lead to the use of puberty blockers (if applicable) and ultimately may lead to irreversible surgeries. The Left calls these surgeries “top” and “bottom” surgery in order to gloss over the horrors that are actually taking place inside the operating room. A top surgery is a double mastectomy performed on perfectly healthy girls. A bottom surgery is where the surgeon performs a phalloplasty. I will leave it to you, dear reader, to ascertain the definition of this procedure.

In comparison, when a biological male transitions, he is also prescribed puberty blockers (if puberty has not started) that “pause” (Left’s term) puberty. However, these same medications, like Lupron, are also prescribed to sex offenders as a means of chemical castration. When a male decides to complete this “transition,” a vaginoplasty is performed, in addition to other mutilating surgeries that entail a lifetime of medical care.

Our state lawmakers, along with Governor Bill Lee, have vowed to investigate these practices and pass laws to prohibit them on minor children in Tennessee hospitals. Our leaders in Washington are completely on board for allowing children to decide what gender they identify as, yet they won’t allow these same children to receive an aspirin at school without parental consent. In contrast, these same leaders, and their weaponized Department of Justice, are complicit in school counselors and children’s services having the ability to remove children from homes and even arrest parents if they don’t “affirm” the child’s new gender on a whim. These same children, who at 13 can decide to have their healthy breast tissue or other natural appendages removed because they feel like the opposite sex, cannot legally buy a pack of cigarettes or an alcoholic drink. The Left also claims that a child in the womb knows his or her gender. How can that be? Does this same Left not believe that this “mass” residing inside the womb is merely a clump of cells? Do clumps of cells now reason? And just like that, the fetus became a child. The foolishness is mind-boggling.

More food for thought lies in the fact that the Left is doing its utmost to normalize pedophilia. The latest fad involves what that community has termed “family-friendly drag shows.” These events star men who dress as scantily clad cartoonish versions of women and perform obscene dance moves in front of crowds that include small children brought there by none other than their parents. Recently, a bar in Eugene, Oregon, hosted an 11-year-old girl who dresses and performs as a drag queen. What can one conclude from such events being not only normalized but celebrated as a new form of freedom from the restraints of the patriarchy? Only that the old standards of modesty and decorum must be destroyed and built anew.

A person called Dr. Allyn Walker, a transgender man (woman) who is an assistant professor of sociology and criminal processing at Old Dominion University, recently wrote a book titled, A Long Dark Shadow: Minor Attracted People and Their Pursuit of Dignity. The title alone takes one aback. But she doesn’t stop there. Throughout the book, Walker uses the term “minor-attracted person,” or MAP for short, to deliberately rebrand what has, for millennia, been viewed as one of the worst issues to plague mankind — the sexual abuse of children. Walker states that she in no way is advocating for the abuse of minor children but is fighting for the rights of people who “find” themselves attracted to kids under the age of 18. She posits that just because a person is attracted to a minor, they may not necessarily act on those feelings. She claims that “MAP is less stigmatizing than other terms like pedophile” and that “a lot of people when they hear the term pedophile, they automatically assume that it means sex offender. And that isn’t true. And it leads to a lot of misconceptions about attractions toward minors.” Originally, Old Dominion defended Walker’s comments, but thankfully there is still some common sense in our country and it decided to place her on administrative leave; she ultimately stepped down from her position at the conclusion of her contract in May of this year.

In the 1960’s, Bob Dylan sang, “The times they are a-changin.” No greater truth can be spoken in 2022. These days, I am appalled at the sheer gall shown by leftists. Truth, in their eyes, is anything that suits them. In his book The Rise and Triumph of the Modern Self, Carl Trueman explains the rhetoric this way: “That which hinders my outward expression of my inner feelings-that which challenges or attempts to falsify my psychological beliefs about myself and thus to disturb my sense of inner well-being — is by definition harmful and to be rejected. And that means that traditional institutions must be transformed to conform to the psychological self, not vice versa.”

The odds are definitely stacked against the Right, but we must not waver. I believe that the sleeping masses have awakened, and with that they are bringing with them the reckoning to what we have been witness to under Biden’s regime. We cannot bury our heads in the sand any longer — for that is how we arrived where we are today. We can no longer “go along to get along” when it comes to social issues. The time is now to run headlong into the teeth of the fight.

Do not let this opportunity to make a change pass you by. Together we can and will, God willing, take this country back from the hands of those who seek to destroy it from within. Get out and vote.