Trump brings Christmas back, makes America great again

Call it the Trump effect, or call it something else. But it’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas — again. Where some years ago “War on Christmas” headlines were prominent, now we’re being treated to the following story courtesy of Killeen, Texas. 

Not long ago, the Killeen Independent School District Board of Trustees changed the name of “winter break” back to “Christmas break,” entirely proper since the break was instituted because it’s, well, Christmastime. (Maybe liberal districts angry about recognizing Christmas should keep their schools in session and their personnel working — “Busy hands are happy hands,” as they say.) 

The board last year additionally “defied the Freedom From Religion Foundation’s demand to cease praying before meetings,” according to a Fox News report. They’re also ignoring the Department of Education’s dictate that they allow boys to use girls’ bathrooms (and vice versa). 

Good news, you say? It certainly raises an important point: Democrats have often accused conservatives of being unwilling to compromise. Fair enough: On the heels of President-elect Trump’s election victory and the Killeen developments, conservatives should take a note from liberals.

A couple of suggestions to that end: Currently, there are more than 22,000 gun-control laws on the books. I propose eliminating all of them. 

As a compromise, however, we can accept nixing just half – for now. 

Unreasonable? Well, it’s precisely what liberals have ever been doing to conservatives. It’s one reason our society has veered to the left.

The most consistent definition of “liberal” describes a desire to change the status quo. The most consistent definition of “conservative” is a desire to maintain it. What typically happens in liberal/conservative negotiations? Liberals approach the bargaining table requesting a change. The conservatives may not like it, but believing that “reasonable” people compromise, they offer liberals a portion of what they want. 

The liberals come back, again and again, in a year or five or a decade, getting another slice here, a morsel there and a crumb elsewhere — until eventually they have the whole loaf. 

Marriage is a good example. At one time considered in the West something “God hath joined.” It then became something government itself could join. Next was divorce and then no-fault divorce. Then homosexuals wanted to “marry,” and conservatives, figuring it would end the matter, offered “civil unions.” The rest is history, of course, except now there’s a movement to legalize polygamy, which Politico said last year was “the next horizon of social liberalism.” 

It’s not likely to be the last horizon. Some people already claim to have “married” animals.

Another example is the federal income tax, which was established in 1913. It applied to less than one percent of the population and the rate was one percent of net income. After a century of standard statist incrementalism, however, Americans now work for the government until April 24 — paying the nation’s tax burden. And you thought slavery ended in 1865. 

The solution for traditionalists is not to compromise, but to be uncompromising in restoring sanity. Trump’s election, and the revival of Christmas in Killeen, could be just at the beginning of that road.

Selwyn Duke is a conservative media personality whose work has been published on The American Conservative, WorldNetDaily, and American Thinker. He has also contributed to college textbooks published by Gale – Cengage Learning, and is a frequent guest on radio and television.

The views expressed by contributors are their own and are not the views of The Hill.