Sometimes when a person loves something they will water down or ignore the bad qualities of the thing. Having worked in childcare for a decade, I have seen firsthand parents who love their children but accept (and then attempt to rectify) the negative behavior their child exhibited that I or a colleague reported to them. But then on the other side, some parents will either accuse the negative behavior of existing, “because of the other kids," or will handwave away the mean, or unsafe things their child did as if it was no big deal.

In the interest of being fair to narrowed-brow parents reading this: sometimes the negative thing isn’t that bad, but – sometimes it is.

I can sympathize beyond my station.

As a child it would be frustrating to continually perform poorly in a sport and watch my peers and rivals gain accolades and praise while I would not. The same would be true for a parent: overworked and tired while holding onto a vain, but honest hope that their kid will rise up and shine.

On the political and cultural baseball field: how long was it that conservatives lost to liberals? What was the losing streak? At the very least eight years under President Obama, but it certainly started before that. I know from personal experience that schools and teachers were very liberal leaning in their teachings and that started long before.

Churches, a backbone of American culture for hundreds of years were closing or half-empty. Divorce rates only went up. It probably sucked for a long time to have daughters and sons come home, only to argue with Dad about how “dumb" his ideas were.

Then President Trump came along with a banner of stars and stripes that he was not ashamed of while the left was happy to decry the “pollution" that the United States is and then said all the things that conservatives wanted to hear and started winning.

How proud they must have felt to finally win, and even with President Biden’s four-year victory, Trump went and won again, and then because the left chose to spread themselves thin over the last decade, trying to champion every single social issue on the planet at the same time, he won again.

And the Supreme Court became conservative.

And the Senate became conservative.

And the House of Representatives became conservative.

Ah, but pride – pride is a sin for a reason.

Proverbs 16:18, Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before the fall.

and Proverbs 18:12, Before Destruction a man’s heart is haughty, but humility comes before honor.

I thought that conservatives believed in personal responsibility, and accountability, and even cared for our veterans and the safety of our troops overseas. I had a brother in the Navy, and I would hope that the people representing us in our highest offices would take that seriously, and honorably.

Thus, it is: like a prideful parent who has been told and shown evidence their child did something bad, the response from conservatives over the “Signal leak” has been muted or absent. So prideful in their victories were the conservatives in their recent and continual hammer fall victories after so. many. losses. that the bad behavior of the child is “waved away," when there should be consequences.

To Those Not In The Know Of The Signal Leak:

It is illegal for government officials to discuss classified information outside of a secure, designated “situation room." It is also illegal to not record wartime discussions in the event that Congress seeks those records for ethical purposes or for the impeachment of any government official.

The “Signal chat” was a text-group-chat between the highest members of President Trump’s cabinet, about:

A: Bombing locations

B: Bombing times

C: The name of an active CIA agent

D: The assassination of a terrorist

The best part was when Mike Waltz accidentally invited “The Atlantic’s” editor to the group chat, “Jeffery Goldberg." Mr. Goldberg originally said he thought the texts were some big joke he had been invited to until the bombs began to fall on Yemen when and where the texts said they were going to fall.

I would like to believe that he did it on purpose, as then it would mean he acted ethically, and honorably, to expose what was certainly against the law, and dangerous to our pilots and sailors.

The handwaving may continue still, but I shall call forth reason: text messages, even encrypted, can be intercepted. However, I will concede the argument that maybe any intercepted chats weren’t intercepted. I don’t need the point at all, because after the leaks, the German news magazine, “Der Spiegel,” found the private data – emails, passwords, usernames – of our National Security Advisor, Mike Waltz, our Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, and our Secretary of Defense, Pete Hesgeth; all online with brief searches through commercial data brokers and data-breach dumps. Der Spiegel confirmed that some of the leaked information was still active after the “Signal Leak.”

 So encrypted or not, people with prestigious titles like, “Director of National Intelligence,” were shown to not just disregard laws designed to keep people ethical, but also to keep people safe while also refusing to use intelligence by not updating passwords at a minimum. If some newspaper in Germany can look up Tulsi Gabbard's email and password, surely any nation's spies could do just that too.

–Which puts our pilots and sailors directly at risk. Anti-Air missiles could have been moved to shoot down our brave, and young pilots.

Then, our Director of National Intelligence is so intelligent that when questioned by Congress she, “cannot recall anything that would be classified in the group chat.”

I don’t know, Ms. Gabbard, the name of a CIA spy is probably information I, a journalist, shouldn’t have.

Kicking a dead horse doesn’t have any advantages, so consider this article a lament to honor and respect: our executive officials used emojis to cheer about the United States dropping bombs on humans. Not all of the people who died were in all likelihood bad guys. Mike Waltz admitted in the chat that, “We had a positive ID of him walking into his girlfriend's building and it's now collapsed.”

Death, or the threat goes hand in hand with power and even freedom. But let us not be so crass to use emojis to celebrate death.

A Gallup poll taken on April 2nd after the Signal chats and the stock market plummeting in response to tariffs shows Trump’s approval has yet fallen again since he took office, from 47% to 43%.

By Conservatives not decrying the use of the Signal group chat and seeking the sacking of the people involved – I'd like them to not claim they care anymore about personal responsibility or the safety of our troops, and that breaks my heart.

It would be honorable if they would call on those people involved to resign, and in turn, they would gain the respect and trust of the American people.

Proverbs 16:18, Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall.

Austin Petak is an aspiring novelist and freelance journalist who loves seeking stories and the quiet passions of the soul. If you are interested in reaching out to him to cover a story, you may find him at austinpetak@gmail.com.

Opinions expressed by columnists in The Daily Record are not necessarily those of its management or staff, and do not constitute an endorsement or recommendation. Any errors or omissions should be called to our attention so that they may be corrected. Contact us at news@omahadailyrecord.com.