When word got out that Capt. R.E. Ludlow had hung up on and blocked certain people on the conservative side of his life – they all were complaining, but not to him – certain people felt bold enough to call him and feel him out.
“Well, see here, just because Donald Trump is in office doesn't mean everybody voted for him to throw folks back into slavery,” he growled to one. “Yes, I recognize that poster conservatism made in 1867. That has about as much to do as how I live as the man in the moon.”
“I'm not against progressive politics – who is against progress when he recognizes his grandchildren have to live in this century, not the previous? What you to the far left do not understand is that the fears you have of our ideas is the fear we have of yours – progress at the expense of our children and grandchildren, and too many of y'all coming out saying, 'Well, it's your turn to go through what our people had to go through!' That's God's decision to make, not yours.”
“Yes, I know about what you said on Facebook in 2008 when Barack Obama was elected, and I'm going to say to you what I would have said on Facebook if I were on it: if you think I and millions of men like me are going to submit to our children and grandchildren going through what your ancestors went through so you can be satisfied about all that, I guarantee that you are wrong.
“You think you have problems with a protest 3,000 miles from you in Charlottesville in 2017. You think you have problems with a pandemic. You will not know what a problem is until you propose a future that impoverishes my grandchildren, who have done nothing to you and yours – and this is why you aren't going to make progress and those of you out there yelling and screaming are not going to get what you think you are. Yes, I said that with my old white male privileged chest.
“AGAIN: you don't yet know me and millions of men who really want what you want, but are not hearing you when you talk like you are God, because you are not, and if we are men, and if it comes down to a trial of collective strength, you will lose it. You will lose it. Go look at your stats on control of wealth and resources. You can't redistribute what you don't have. No, seriously, go make progress in your knowledge and call me back. I'll wait.
“Yes, it really is that bad. That IS the fault of my direct ancestors and their peers. I am a Ludlow. I get that. But it is not even practical to think that any of us living today can make up for that directly when the old system is gone and we are trying to survive just like you are. We are trying to survive just like you are.
“I'm interested in any politics that makes a fair and just future for both our descendants, for real. That's the only politics I'm interested in and have even been interested in. My grandchildren are orphans. I'm behind you trying to get them situated, and if I thought Donald Trump or the Confederate flag would help me get them caught up, I'd stay with that – but I know better now. I know better now. Your side still has to convince me, however, that you offer a chance for them that is better.”
People should not hold Capt Ludlow's past or what his ancestors did before him, it is what he believes and acts now that counts.
Exactly ... and this is the honest feeling of a lot of real people like him.