Guest Editorial
We call ourselves Republicans. We declare, proudly, that we understand the future of America is not a spectator sport. But if we cut through the noise and are completely honest with each other, we have to ask a hard question: Are we actually down on the field playing the game, or are we just watching from the safety of the bleachers?
We are standing at an historic milestone. As our nation marks its 250th anniversary, this milestone cannot be treated as a finish line for us to passively celebrate. It is the starting gun for our survival.
Lesson of the salad bowl
Consider the humble salad bowl—it is the perfect picture of how we win, and how we lose. One person can show up and bring a massive bowl of plain lettuce. But let’s be honest: a bowl of dry lettuce is boring, unappetizing, and nobody wants it. It isn’t until everyone else participates—when one neighbor brings the tomatoes, another brings the toppings, and someone else brings the dressing—that we actually transform that plain lettuce into a complete, nourishing meal.
This election cycle is no different. Leadership can provide the framework. We can hand you the lettuce. But if you expect a handful of local party members or a few candidates to carry the entire weight of this election on their backs, our movement will starve. We need every single conservative to bring their piece to the table. We need your time, your talent, your energy, and your effort. If you don’t contribute your unique piece, the mission fails.
The threat is at our door
We have a critical election staring us right in the face. The stakes have never been higher, and we must be absolutely clear about what we are up against. We are facing an opposition driven by a radical agenda to push America toward a socialist future—stripping away our freedoms and fundamentally altering the country we know and love. They want to rewrite our history, dismantle our constitutional institutions, and dictate how we live, how we spend our hard-earned money, and how we raise our children.
The opposition wants us to be a room of quiet spectators. They want us compliant, silent, and sitting in the stands while they run this country into the ground. Right now, by sitting back, we are letting them.
The work ahead of us over the coming months is going to be brutal, demanding every ounce of energy we have left in the tank. We must out-work the other side:
- We need to secure the vote.
- We need people to knock on doors.
- We need people to make phone calls.
- We need volunteers to hand out sample ballots at the precincts.
Some of you might be sitting there thinking, “I don’t want to ruffle any feathers. I’m worried about what my neighbors or friends will think of me if I get too political.”
Let me ask you a harder question: If you are worried about what people think of you right now, how are you going to feel if we lose? How are you going to feel when the country we love is gone because we were too polite to save it?
No Miracle Workers: Giving Our Leaders Backup
Let’s get another thing straight: Donald Trump is not a miracle worker. He cannot do this alone. If we think we can just vote him into the White House and then coast for the next four years, we are completely delusional. He must have a wall of America-First patriots standing right beside him in Congress and in local offices to move a conservative agenda forward.
If we don’t give him the backup he needs, the radical left will spend every single day tying up his administration in endless Congressional hearings, investigations, and the exact same political theater that bogged down his first term. Winning the presidency is only half the battle. If we don’t win the down-ballot races, we paralyze our own leadership.
Look at our local matchups. Jamie Ager may be a nice farmer, and he may attempt to market himself as a moderate, but he has accepted millions of campaign dollars from national progressives like Hakeem Jeffries. I guarantee you that his vote in Washington, if he wins, will be owned by the national interests that funded his campaign account. We have to work twice as hard to get Congressman Chuck Edwards across the finish line.
Similarly, on the statewide stage, we cannot afford complacency. While many of us have had deep frustrations with Thom Tillis over the years, we must look at the reality of who is fighting to take that seat. Roy Cooper is a known tyrant to conservative principles—just remember the sweeping lockdowns he imposed on North Carolina during Covid and the controversial executive pardons he issued. We must unite and get Michael Whatley into the U.S. Senate.
Macon County is the battleground
To achieve this, we have to put past pettiness aside. We have to drop the hesitation. We need people who have the boldness to step up, get their hands dirty, and help save our republic.
Elections are not won in Washington or Raleigh; they are won in the precincts by everyday people. Macon County is the battleground. If we don’t carry our candidates way over the finish line right here at home, we fail the entire State and, by extension, the Nation.
In this grand experiment of self-governance, if you don’t play, you lose everything. If we stay in the stands, the Democrats take the offense by default. There are no innocent bystanders in a free republic. If we value our liberty, our families, and our constitutional principles, we have to stop talking, lace up our walking shoes, and get on the field.
We cannot afford to nod our heads in agreement today and do nothing tomorrow. We need you to commit, right now, to being an active player. No more excuses. No more waiting for someone else to do the heavy lifting.
When reporters in Asheville write their post-election articles about how the Republicans swept the field, let them write that it started because we woke up, we stepped up, and the patriots right here in Macon County refused to let freedom die on our watch.
Let’s get to work.