The Right Side: Not just the winning side

 Being on the Right Side, Not Just the Winning Side

Over the recent decades, we’ve seen what happens when politics stops being about principles and becomes only about power. When rhetoric becomes a weapon. When leaders encourage confrontation, violence, and even death. When we confuse being right with being victorious.

This isn’t just a lament about politics. It’s a warning for our moral, cultural, civic, and spiritual soul.

We live in a moment where power demands we pick “winning” over what is “right.” But what has that cost us? And what will it cost if we keep doing it?

Can we claim to hold moral values if we embrace hatred, lawlessness, even murder just to get a “win”? Can we say we love our fellow citizens if we help them into their own destruction—handing out needles to the addicted, calling it compassion, while watching life slip away?

When leaders tell their followers to “get in their face,” when “peaceful protest” becomes an excuse for violence, when debate is met with loathing and bloodlust—are we still being Americans? Patriots? Missionaries? Torchbearers of liberty?

What is the value of a win if it demands we hate our neighbor for voting differently? What is freedom worth if it costs another’s right to speak, pray, or believe? Can we claim to be on the right side when we cheer the destruction of history, mock the beliefs of others, or stand silent as violence becomes routine?

We might land on the “winning” side for a moment, but what are we winning if it costs our character, our values, and our very soul?

When we fight for the “right” to end a life—before it can even choose between good or evil—what does that say about our integrity? What is the value of life if life is only valued when it is convenient?

Being on the right side is harder than being on the winning side. It asks for empathy over anger. Truth over expediency. It requires faith. It requires courage to speak—even when it costs you.

If we want a nation worthy of its founding, we must stop chasing victories that destroy our very character. What are your values worth if you sell them for a “win”? What is your character worth if you trade it for applause?

Is it worth trading what is right if it requires a foreign exchange of your soul?

It’s time to choose to be in control—this is hard—instead of letting fragile emotions control us—that is easy.

It’s time to choose what is right, not just what is easy… or what wins.

A sitting U.S. president was mocked while a celebrity held a bloody replica of his severed head—people cheered, laughed, and shared it (as reported by New York Times). People called it freedom of speech, a work of art. A music video depicted the simulated assassination of a president—people called it art, not incitement (as reported by BBC).

U.S. Rep. Maxine Waters once told her supporters, “If you see anybody from that Cabinet in a restaurant, in a department store, at a gasoline station, you get out and you create a crowd, and you push back on them” (as reported by CNN). Former president Joe Biden declared that Donald Trump and his supporters “represent an extremism that threatens the very foundations of our Republic” (as reported by White House transcript, 2022).

Statements like these may not directly call for violence, but they frame political opponents as enemies—people to be chased out, shamed, and silenced by any means necessary instead of as fellow citizens to debate and understand.

In 2020, flames rose from Minneapolis after George Floyd’s death.

A man with multiple aggravated offenses. A man with a faulty past. A man, who like all of us, sometimes made a wrong choice in life. A man with an addiction who needed help. 

A man who was an easy mark for the political vultures.

Nearly $2 billion in damage scorched neighborhoods across the U.S., leaving small businesses—many minority-owned—in ashes (as reported by Axios). Statues of Washington, Lincoln, and Grant were toppled. American history is reduced to rubble. In Portland, rioters dragged a man from his truck and beat him unconscious as others stood by laughing and filming (as reported by CBS).

Unprovoked attacks based on pigment, or lack thereof, in one's skin tone. 

Violence and lawlessness grabbed the reins that had been attached to the bits of hate and ignorance placed in the mouths of people.

Retribution became the prospect for the quest of self-righteous gold.

History blotted out while ignorance held the pen to revisionism.

And while the smoke still curled from the ruins, politicians called it “mostly peaceful.”

The vultures fed.

Meanwhile, a gunman took aim at a former president. Crowds online cracked jokes and posted memes. After Charlie Kirk was shot during a public event, social media posts appeared celebrating his death—dancing, mocking, congratulating.

What was the crime? Thinking differently? Speaking publicly about ideas?

Political violence is no longer hypothetical. It’s part of our daily sorrow. Sorrow for some, but food for others.

Let us remember and respect the fallen defenders of America’s great Republic

What is the worth of victory if we celebrate the destruction of our neighbor? If we see the smoldering ashes of liberty as the sweet aroma of victory?

What is the worth of freedom if we fuel it with hatred? What is the worth of life if its value depends on a vote?

We call ourselves patriots—yet torch the principles this nation was founded on. We claim to fight for liberty while silencing anyone who questions us. We say we love America while trying to erase her history because it offends us or doesn’t serve our politics.

And if you have to burn your own city down to prove your point… maybe your point needs some work.

Can the Golden Triangle stand if we remove the foundation stone of life and liberty?

Being American isn’t about winning at any cost. It’s about choosing what is right—especially when it costs.

May we have the courage to trade the thrill of victory for the honor of virtue.

May we stop chasing the winning side… and start standing on the right side.

As Abraham Lincoln said, “My concern is not whether God is on our side; my greatest concern is to be on God’s side, for God is always right.”