{"id":2488720,"date":"2025-09-19T15:26:02","date_gmt":"2025-09-19T19:26:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/independents-and-republicans-must-embrace-political-confrontation\/"},"modified":"2025-09-19T15:27:57","modified_gmt":"2025-09-19T19:27:57","slug":"independents-and-republicans-must-embrace-political-confrontation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/independents-and-republicans-must-embrace-political-confrontation\/","title":{"rendered":"Independents And Republicans Must Embrace Political Confrontation"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"float:left\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">14<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Findependents-and-republicans-must-embrace-political-confrontation%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=2488720&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>The article by Eddie Scarry in The Federalist argues that manny Republicans and independents tend to <a href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/3YuVZYV\" >avoid political confrontation<\/a> in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/jesse-singal-explains-how-glaad-used-false-information-to-put-him-on-splc-style-hate-list\/\" title=\"Jesse Singal Explains How GLAAD Used False Information To Put Him On SPLC-Style Hate List\">social settings<\/a>, trying to keep thier <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/walsh-media-says-capitol-riot-killed-five-people-the-truth-is-more-complicated\/\" title=\"WALSH: Media Says Capitol Riot Killed Five People. The Truth Is More Complicated.\">personal lives<\/a> free from conflict. Meanwhile, Democrats often openly and confidently express their political views, sometimes in an aggressive or self-righteous manner that intimidates others. Scarry suggests that this reluctance to engage leads to an imbalance where Democrats dominate political discussions, leaving others feeling demoralized and isolated. He encourages conservatives and independents to embrace political confrontation calmly and confidently in their personal lives, explaining their convictions without hostility.This approach, according to scarry, is necessary to counter leftist dominance in discourse and ultimately to succeed in elections.  <\/p>\n<p class=\"readmore\">\n    <button onclick=\"showReadMore()\" id=\"readmorebtn\">Read more&#8230;<\/button>\n<\/p>\n<hr id=\"line\">\n<span id=\"more\"><\/p>\n<div class=\"article-body body-md bdr-top-black pt-30\">\n<div class=\"row justify-content-center\">\n<div class=\"col-12\">\n<figure class=\"article-thumbnail mb-30 mb-sm-60\">\n<div class=\"article-thumbnail-caption d-flex align-items-center justify-content-md-end label-xs mt-15\">         <i class=\"mdi mdi-camera me-10\" aria-hidden=\"true\"><\/i>         <span class=\"visually-hidden\">Image Credit<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/gageskidmore\/51655499008\/in\/album-72157720093797072\/\">Gage Skidmore\/Flickr<\/a>\/<a href=\"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by-sa\/2.0\/\">CC BY-SA 2.0<\/a>       <\/div>\n<\/figure><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div class=\"article-share text-center article-share-simple\">\n<h5 class=\"label-sm mb-10\">Share<\/h5>\n<ul class=\"article-share-list list-unstyled m-0 p-0\">\n<li class=\"article-share-facebook m-0\">       <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer\/sharer.php?u=https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2025\/09\/19\/independents-and-republicans-have-to-embrace-political-confrontation-in-their-personal-lives\/\" target=\"_blank\">         <i class=\"mdi mdi-facebook\" aria-hidden=\"true\"><\/i>         <span class=\"visually-hidden\">Share Article on Facebook<\/span>       <\/a>     <\/li>\n<li class=\"article-share-twitter m-0\">       <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=Independents%20And%20Republicans%20Have%20To%20Embrace%20Political%20Confrontation%20In%20Their%20Personal%20Lives&amp;url=https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2025\/09\/19\/independents-and-republicans-have-to-embrace-political-confrontation-in-their-personal-lives\/\" target=\"_blank\">         <i class=\"mdi mdi-twitter\" aria-hidden=\"true\"><\/i>         <span class=\"visually-hidden\">Share Article on Twitter<\/span>       <\/a>     <\/li>\n<li class=\"article-share-truth-social m-0\">       <a href=\"https:\/\/truthsocial.com\/share?title=Independents%20And%20Republicans%20Have%20To%20Embrace%20Political%20Confrontation%20In%20Their%20Personal%20Lives&amp;url=https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2025\/09\/19\/independents-and-republicans-have-to-embrace-political-confrontation-in-their-personal-lives\/\" target=\"_blank\">         <svg xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" fill=\"currentColor\" style=\"width:36px;height:auto;\" viewbox=\"0 0 92 93\"><path d=\"M69.444 55.716H56.772v10.37h12.672zM64.487 37.795V27.32H38.666v38.664h13.18v-28.19zM21.05 27.321h12.653v10.471H21.051z\" https:><\/path><\/svg>         <span class=\"visually-hidden\">Share Article on Truth Social<\/span>       <\/a>     <\/li>\n<li class=\"article-share-link m-0\">       <button data-clipboard-text=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2025\/09\/19\/independents-and-republicans-have-to-embrace-political-confrontation-in-their-personal-lives\/\" data-tooltip-content=\"Copied!\" class=\"clip tooltip\">         <i class=\"mdi mdi-link-variant\" aria-hidden=\"true\"><\/i>         <span class=\"visually-hidden\">Copy Article Link<\/span>       <\/button>     <\/li>\n<li class=\"article-share-email m-0\">       <a href=\"mailto:?subject=Independents%20And%20Republicans%20Have%20To%20Embrace%20Political%20Confrontation%20In%20Their%20Personal%20Lives&amp;body=%20https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2025\/09\/19\/independents-and-republicans-have-to-embrace-political-confrontation-in-their-personal-lives\/\" target=\"_blank\">         <i class=\"mdi mdi-email\" aria-hidden=\"true\"><\/i>         <span class=\"visually-hidden\">Share Article via Email<\/span>       <\/a>     <\/li>\n<li class=\"article-share-email m-0\"><span class=\"printfriendly pf-button  pf-alignleft\"><a target=\"_blank\" href=\"http:\/\/thefederalist.com\/#\" rel=\"nofollow\" onclick=\"window.print(); return false;\" title=\"Printer Friendly, PDF &amp; Email\"><span id=\"printfriendly-text2\" class=\"pf-button-text\"><i class=\"mdi mdi-printer\" aria-hidden=\"true\"><\/i><\/span><\/a><\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul><\/div>\n<p>One of the biggest problems that America has is that there&rsquo;s a side of the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/the-purge-has-begun-where-it-stops-nobody-knows\/\" title=\"The Purge Has Begun. Where It Stops, Nobody Knows.\">political divide<\/a> that lives, sleeps, and breathes with their ideology at the front of their mind. That&rsquo;s Democrats. And then there&rsquo;s the other side, Republicans, plus the fluid middle, both of which prefer to keep their politics discreet and their personal lives as conflict-free as possible. We&rsquo;re seeing that it doesn&rsquo;t work, and <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2025\/09\/19\/the-only-way-to-end-leftist-violence-is-to-defeat-leftism-itself\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">to disastrous effect<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>During interviews to promote my new book, <em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/dp\/B0FR8XCMYC\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Traitors: The Democrat Party&rsquo;s Collapse Into Anti-American Filth<\/a><\/em>, I&rsquo;m usually asked some variation of the question, &ldquo;What can people do?&rdquo; I want everyone to read the book, but here&rsquo;s the answer: To <a href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.com\/story\/2013\/12\/nancy-pelosi-budget-deal-101072\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">quote<\/a> a prominent Democrat, &ldquo;Embrace the suck.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<div class=\"fdrlst__b89e9-paragraph-2 d-flex justify-content-center\" style=\"margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center; \" id=\"fdrlst__b89e9-255284850\">\n<div id=\"div-gpt-ad-1463670073398-0\" class=\"mb-30\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>Everyone reading this is familiar with a particular kind of crippling anxiety experienced only by right-wingers and Republican-leaners. You&rsquo;re at a dinner or cocktail party or some other <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/oregon-governor-encourages-people-to-call-police-on-neighbors-violating-covid-orders\/\" title=\"Oregon Governor Encourages People To Call Police On Neighbors Violating COVID Orders\">social gathering<\/a> with mixed company, and a political topic comes up, whether it&rsquo;s about &ldquo;Trump,&rdquo; Elon Musk, or, God forbid, Israel.<\/p>\n<p><em>Should I change the subject? Should I make a joke? What&rsquo;s the best way to genuflect? I don&rsquo;t want to upset anyone.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Such is the norm for unassuming, well-meaning right-wingers and centrists alike. Better to offer some vague input, or better yet, say nothing at all, in hopes that the conversation moves on.<\/p>\n<p>That attitude has to end because the Democrat who&rsquo;s present almost surely has no reservations when it comes to expressing exactly how she feels on the topic, usually in presumptuous, confrontational, and self-righteous ways that serve to intimidate everyone else, or otherwise dare them to say something back. This way, she can really give it to them by calling them racists and fascists. (Or, if she&rsquo;s in a good mood, you might get by with only a passive-aggressive query as to whether you&rsquo;re &ldquo;pro Trump,&rdquo; followed by the silent treatment and only forced smiles for the rest of the occasion.)<\/p>\n<p>For too long, we &mdash;&nbsp;I certainly include myself &mdash; have been under the false belief that skirting political confrontation in mixed company and social settings is the right thing to do. Who wants to fight? Who wants to make anyone else present feel uncomfortable? <\/p>\n<p>The left doesn&rsquo;t mind at all. They never do. They will speak up regardless of whether anyone else does. They&rsquo;re already sure they&rsquo;re right. They&rsquo;re just as sure that everyone else present agrees with them, and if not, that&rsquo;s a person who shouldn&rsquo;t have been invited to be in their presence at all.<\/p>\n<p>To give them a pass by attempting to change the subject or diffuse underlying tension is to cede the issue altogether.<\/p>\n<p>Incentives to avoid interpersonal conflict of the political kind are strong. It keeps people happy. It keeps you in good favor with those you enjoy. But we&rsquo;re at a point in time where it&rsquo;s more important to demonstrate that we don&rsquo;t fear others knowing our convictions. They should know, especially when those convictions are in contradiction with others who have no qualms in expressing their own.<\/p>\n<p>Confrontation isn&rsquo;t the same as hostility or aggression. Anger isn&rsquo;t required in explaining your views, but confidence is key. Democrats can&rsquo;t be permitted to dominate political conversations in social settings. If they are, as they do now, everyone else who disagrees is made to feel that much more demoralized and isolated. That makes a big difference in our national discourse, our culture, and, ultimately, our elections.<\/p>\n<p>Our strategy to win elections has to include comfort with discomfort in our personal lives. When the conversation at a party or social gathering turns to politics, embrace it.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\">\n<div class=\"article-author-description fst-italic\">      Eddie Scarry is the D.C. columnist at The Federalist and author of &#8220;<a href=\"\/\/www.amazon.com\/dp\/B0FR8XCMYC\">Traitors: The Democrat Party&rsquo;s Collapse into Anti-American Filth<\/a>.&#8221;<\/div>\n<div class=\"article-author mt-30 mt-sm-60 pt-30 bdr-top-bold-black\">\n<div class=\"row g-0 align-items-center\">\n<div class=\"col-12 col-md-6\">\n<div class=\"article-author-profile d-flex align-items-center justify-content-center justify-content-md-start\">\n<div class=\"article-author-details\">\n<div class=\"label-md\">Eddie Scarry<\/div>\n<div class=\"article-author-twitter label-sm d-flex align-items-center mt-10\">             <i class=\"mdi mdi-twitter me-5\" aria-hidden=\"true\"><\/i>             <span class=\"visually-hidden\">Visit on Twitter<\/span>            <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/eScarry\" target=\"_blank\" class=\"text-decoration-none\">@eScarry<\/a>           <\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div class=\"col-12 col-md-6 d-flex justify-content-center justify-content-md-end mt-15 mt-md-0\">        <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/author\/eddiescarry\/\" class=\"btn btn-black btn-small\">More Articles<\/a>     <\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div class=\"article-tags bdr-top-black mt-30 mt-sm-60 pt-15 pt-md-45\">\n<ul class=\"list-unstyled d-flex flex-wrap align-items-center mb-0 mx-n10 p-0\">\n<li class=\"mt-10 mx-10\"><a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/tag\/culture\/\" class=\"btn btn-black btn-small\">Culture<\/a><\/li>\n<li class=\"mt-10 mx-10\"><a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/tag\/democrats\/\" class=\"btn btn-black btn-small\">Democrats<\/a><\/li>\n<li class=\"mt-10 mx-10\"><a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/tag\/elon-musk\/\" class=\"btn btn-black btn-small\">Elon Musk<\/a><\/li>\n<li class=\"mt-10 mx-10\"><a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/tag\/independents\/\" class=\"btn btn-black btn-small\">Independents<\/a><\/li>\n<li class=\"mt-10 mx-10\"><a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/tag\/political-discourse\/\" class=\"btn btn-black btn-small\">political discourse<\/a><\/li>\n<li class=\"mt-10 mx-10\"><a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/tag\/politics\/\" class=\"btn btn-black btn-small\">Politics<\/a><\/li>\n<li class=\"mt-10 mx-10\"><a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/tag\/republicans\/\" class=\"btn btn-black btn-small\">Republicans<\/a><\/li>\n<li class=\"mt-10 mx-10\"><a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/tag\/society\/\" class=\"btn btn-black btn-small\">society<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Image Credit Gage Skidmore\/Flickr\/CC BY-SA 2.0 Share Article on Facebook, Twitter, Truth Social, Email One major U.S. issue: one side lives and breathes ideology<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":493,"featured_media":2488721,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/TPUSA.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[33651],"tags":[5118,23324,53911,3756],"class_list":["post-2488720","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-western-journal","tag-bipartisanship","tag-independents","tag-political-confrontation","tag-republicans"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/TPUSA.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2488720","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/493"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2488720"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2488720\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2488724,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2488720\/revisions\/2488724"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2488721"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2488720"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2488720"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2488720"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}