Here's a question people like us are probably asking:
Am I really “far right?”
Or, am I “farther right?” Is farther right more or less right than far right? Farther than what?
It would help if we had benchmarks, so those who are “farther left” - they're everywhere - could be forewarned. Are we talking mild dislike for people like us, or true, pedal-to-the-metal loathing?
So I have some questions about how far down the conservative rabbit hole our liberal friends believe we have descended.
My daughter was once on a high school water polo team. Had I heard that an opposing team had a member who was a guy pretending to be a girl, I would have had serious misgivings about what a water polo ball, thrown by a pretend female, could have done to her noggin.
I'd have been against her competing against an opponent who – can I say this? - throws like a guy.
Twenty years ago, when she was in high school, pretend girls didn't compete against actual girls. Not so today.
Call me right wing, but I'd have opposed it. Even more now that I have granddaughters.
Now, if I heard that a member of my daughter's team was a pretend female, and was walking around in the girls' locker room with male accoutrements in plain sight, I would have dropped everything at work and driven directly to the high school. Knowing my wife, she would have already been there.
Call me crazy, but our daughter would not have been on a team on which male accoutrements were on display in the girls' locker room. Same with girls' bathrooms open to any Tom, Dick or Harry who came along. Absolutely not.
Call me far right if you want, but that's how I feel.
Moving along, I also support those library board members up in Gillette – Wyoming's most unabashedly conservative city – who stood their ground on age inappropriate books in the children's section of the library. They are heroes. I don't want my granddaughters exposed to adult stuff at a child's age. Call me right wing, but that's what I think.
And I laugh when liberals call common sense in book selection “book banning.” If that's the case, every book not selected for a library has been “banned.” Ludicrous.
Let's move on to immigration. Joe Biden proudly threw open our southern border on his first day in office. Does it make me a far right nut to believe that millions of undocumented immigrants have entered our country illegally? Am I crazy to think people coming into our country today should obey the same laws our ancestors obeyed generations years ago?
Am I way out on a limb believing that?
And was I wrong to doubt that the guy who threw open the border could now be trusted to close the border, if only mean old Donald Trump hadn't opposed the much-ballyhooed “bipartisan” bill? Bear in mind that bipartisan immigration reform has eluded Congress since the 1980s. But we're supposed to believe that this hopelessly flawed bill would have passed, if not for Trump?
Call me far right if you wish, but you have to wonder just how stupid they think we are.
And then there's our $35 trillion debt. I know people who say it's always been this way. That we'll be dead before the dung hits the fan, so why worry. Or that it isn't as simple as running a family budget.
But, I say going this far into debt is the mark of spendthrift, irresponsible, self-serving politicians (in both parties) spending whatever it takes to keep getting their sorry backsides re-elected, and shamelessly growing the already bloated government beast.
At the expense of our grandchildren.
So you can call me far right on that one, too. Be my guest.
Figuring out how far right we are is simpler than you might think, if you've still got an ounce of common sense. Looks like the middle to me.
So call us what you want – far right, farther right, right wing, whatever.
If these beliefs are “far right,” it makes you wonder where the heck the middle is these days.
I rest my case, Your Honor.
Dave Simpson can be reached at: DaveSimpson145@hotmail.com
