Why Resistance Rabbit
Conservatives were the original resistance, it's past time to be loud again - this time, united.
In 2015, the original Resistance started sometime between the golden escalator descent and the end of the fall debates. Our generation’s P.T. Barnum ran as a Republican, and many conservatives saw it not as a threat 2016 Republican chances — but to the Republic itself. In January, the National Review published an “Against Trump” issue feature a who’s who of conservative thinkers, including Thomas Sowell, Glenn Beck, Brent Bozell, Erick Erickson, Bill Kristol and Cal Thomas.
Warnings From Current Complicit Conservatives
Before he was a best-selling author, an Appalachian conservative named J.D. Vance said that Trump was “cultural heroin” and that he alternated between thinking he was Nixon or “America’s Hitler.” In March of 2016 on CNN, current Secretary of State Marco Rubio more precisely and prophetically predicted “a third world strongman” — unless “our Republic completely crumbles.”
Now, as you know, J.D. Vance is Vice President and Marco Rubio is Secretary of State. I don’t believe their opinions of the President have changed, but they clearly came to value power more than principal.
Others that saw the threat, like my mentor Rep. H. Morgan Griffith, endorsed Trump in 2016 because of two things from my perspective: (1) a district visit by Mike Pence during the campaign and (2) a fundamental fear of losing the Supreme Court for a generation. However, as I’ve seen with everyone who cast aside their concerns and endorsed or otherwise supported Trump, once they did the original reasons didn’t matter any more. For example, Rep. Griffith was just as strong of a supporter after the President turned on Vice President Pence and the Constitution in January 2021. And Griffith is even a more prominent supporter of the President now in 2025 that the President has openly flaunted a unanimous Supreme Court on due process.
A Note on 2016
A pastor and former College Republican colleague of mine often points out his belief that if the 2016 primary field had consolidated before Super Tuesday, then Donald Trump would just be a footnote in political history. I would add that if conservatives had trusted their view of Trump and consolidated to oppose him, then he may have been footnote as well, just a longer one. In 2016 it wasn’t conceivable to enough conservatives that we would elect Sen. Clinton over a Republican, even one many of us saw as “America’s Hitler.” I wasn’t a “Never Trumper” because I’ve learned that saying “never” backfires, but I also didn’t commit myself to long term opposition. However, now that he’s both President and has a secret police force with the reality is both long term commitment is necessary, and, harder, we cannot defeat this American fascism with just those who align with our specific ideology.
Where Did the Other Conservatives Go
Not all conservatives “bent the knee.” Some were forced out, either early on like Rep. Virgil Goode (R-VA) or this year like Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC). I think other private citizen conservatives might be in a similar situation to me. During the first term, the litany of outrageous statements and attempted actions was too draining on both time and personal relationships to continue objecting to them all.
Also, institutional guardrails both kept the President in check and I optimistically hoped that would hold true in 2025. I never voted for Trump, but it wasn’t until watching the April 2nd “Liberation Day” Press Conference and the lack of elected Republican outrage that I began to realize how perilous of a state the Republican was in. I had tuned it out and grown resigned to living through another term without any objective reason their would be safeguards left the second time.
Looking around, I’ve still found no elected Republican taking a hard-line, principled stand against the President except on occasional issues. While I’m grateful for Thomas Massie and occasionally Rand Paul, voting against the President on individual issues is not enough when our whole experiment in an Constitutional Republic is at stake. As far as prominent Republicans not in office, former Governor Senator George Allen’s (R-Va) are notable in both efficacy and rarity.
Citizen Conservatives Role Now
Shortly following “Liberation Day” I decided that if no elected conservatives were speaking up for the Constitution and the Rule of Law, then citizens must. And, even though I’m a terrible public speaker and swore off politics in my 20s, I decided that if no one else I knew in my area was loud, I had to be. I don’t think that I should be leading, but I’m hoping that just being out here doing all that I can will help other, more capable leaders to stand up. If you’re a conservative or libertarian reading this, I hope you’ll join existing efforts or start your own. Bill Kristol’s statement from the 2016 National Review article was true then and even more urgent now:
“William F. Buckley Jr. proclaimed, in the founding statement of this journal, that conservatism ‘stands athwart history, yelling Stop, at a time when no one is inclined to do so, or to have much patience with those who so urge it.’ Hasn’t Donald Trump always been a man inclined to go along — indeed, impatient to get along — with history?
….In sum: Isn’t Trumpism a two-bit Caesarism of a kind that American conservatives have always disdained? Isn’t the task of conservatives today to stand athwart Trumpism, yelling Stop?”
I believe it is our task, but also those of everyone else patriotic and able bodied. If we had been united internally or with, gasp, Democrats in 2016, or 2020, or 2024 we likely wouldn’t be here now. Well over half of 340 million Americans aren’t happy with this President or his agenda — a President that has never received 50% of the popular vote and denied Project 2025 during the campaign.
It’s time for not only elected Republicans to hear that Conservatives are uniting against this regime and agenda, but for the angry independents, new voters, and yes, even the democrats and far left to hear that we are with them on the side of the Constitution, the rule of law, and basic human dignity. Nature and politics abhor a vacuum, if conservatives (and Christians) don’t lead, the void will be filled completely by the left — including the Communist left.
For example, last Thursday was the first time I saw a Communist Party representative at a rally. It was only two people, and they only signed up few names, but that’s how it starts. I don’t plan to have another rally in my town without a Constitutionally based group there to sign up up people.
“Resistance Rabbit” & CLEAR Rule of Law
This leads to the name “Resistance Rabbit” and the inspiring name-sake James Otis, Jr. The rabbit as a resistance figure was inspired by my friend Shawn’s Corridor Rabbit publication. I didn’t name the original Resistance Rabbit until I decided to get a tattoo to make my identifiable opposition to tyranny irreversible. Tattoos need a name, and I went with James Otis, Jr because he was a lawyer who first coined the phrase “taxation without representation is tyranny” well over a decade before the Boston Tea Party. He also wasn’t as effective of a leader as the actual founders — not many even know who he was. However, John Adams said that one of Otis’s early 1760s courtroom speeches gave birth to the “child Independence.” We already have independence, but I hope to draw inspiration from his work.
Resistance Rabbit is intended as a running political cartoon alternating with up-to-date reporting on both tyranny and the resistance to it. It’s the second project I started after “Liberation Day” after
and its CLEAR Impeachment project. Whereas CLEAR Rule of Law’s posts and purpose is intended to be more long term, polished, and thought provoking, my hope is that Resistance Rabbit is more like running resistance reporting that regularly publishes with updates of varying length and substance. While this may be optimistic, I’m also hoping it’s of a finite length and we can get to rebuilding the Republic instead of resisting its destruction.If you’re out there resisting, keep it up and get louder if possible. I hope you’ll get in contact with me or others — community helped fuel the rise of MAGA and community is necessary to get past it as well.