This started as a tweet, grew into a lengthier Facebook post, and finally this short primer. The left has run amok and can hopefully be checked by a Republican landslide in the mid-terms. But understand there can be no free society while either the left or the right dominates American thought.

Here are a few thoughts on each:

The right

The abstract “America” conservatives seek to preserve or restore is actually the 19th century classical liberal society conservatives of the time fought tooth and nail.

And that classical liberal society was destroyed by the world wars and the New Deal, both of which most modern conservatives venerate.

Allying with the Soviets to defeat the Nazis – instead of standing back and letting them destroy each other – was the final nail in the coffin.

The universally condemned policy of “appeasement” was actually the smart play that could have saved Western Civilization.

Looking at a map makes clear allowing Hitler to re-annex Danzig would have resulted in his continuing his expansion plan, which he clearly stated in Mein Kampf was NOT south or West. It was east, to claim the “borderlands of Russia.”

Even as late as June 6, 1944, now a conservative holy day, there was an opportunity to not invade France and allow the Nazis and Soviets – at that time still fighting a bloody war of attrition near the Russian border – to complete their mutual destruction.

Imagine no Cold War. There needn’t have been one had the “neocons” of the time, like Churchill, not got their way.

Yet, today’s conservatives venerate both the war and Churchill, the very forces that destroyed the last hope of the civilization they seek.

The U.S. became a garrison state solely because the Soviets were allowed to seize half of Europe, something they could not have done had the U.S. not entered the war.

The national security state refused to demobilize after the Cold War ended. It morphed into the War on Terror, again with full-throated support from the right.

Now, the national security state has declared the right the terrorists and it’s coming after them. What tragic, poetic justice.

And even now, conservatives cannot let go of the myths that allowed the means of their own destruction to be built. They want to “reform” or “restore” the national security state, rather than destroy it.

The left

The left is much simpler to understand. After history proved once and for all that communism is not only an inferior economic system to capitalism, but fatal to any society that implements it, the left began attacking capitalism on different grounds.

One must understand, though, that everything the left does is a means towards the end of changing the economic system from capitalism to some form of socialism or communism. Thus,

The left doesn’t care about “the environment.” It’s just a means to the end of changing the economic system.

The left doesn’t care about African Americans. They are just a means to the end of changing the economic system.

The left doesn’t care about LGBTQ or “trans” people. They are just a means to the end of changing the economic system.

The left doesn’t care about Immigrants. They are just a means to the end of changing the economic system.

The left doesn’t care about “hate speech.” That is just a means to the end of changing the economic system.

None of this is a secret. Read Marcuse.

Every campus riot over a conservative speaker, Black Lives Matter march, Women’s march, LGBTQ march, destruction of statues, attack on language (pronouns, etc.) are all tactics out of the 1789 playbook the left has used in every revolution since.

These are all means to the end of changing the economic system. Period. Once you understand that, you understand not to engage the left on any of these grounds.

To truly understand how these people think, read my book, Where Do Conservatives and Liberals Come From? or become a VIP Patron to take my online courses (Where Do Liberals Come From? coming soon)

Tom Mullen is the author of It’s the Fed, Stupid and Where Do Conservatives and Liberals Come From? And What Ever Happened to Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness?