A cold war with an evil ideology has been underway for decades. Most in positions of political power have been uncertain how to respond.

On one side of this struggle, believers in ordered liberty rally around traditional American values, elevating faith, family, personal choice, and personal responsibility. On the other side, a conglomeration of interests advances a system of authoritarian control, using violence and threats to subjugate those who express their humanity by elevating faith, family, and personal responsibility over the prevailing collectivist values that those authoritarians would impose.

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For many years, the supporters of traditional American values were content to contain the spread of this evil ideology while maintaining a broader peace between both sides.

In time, this policy failed, and the evil forces were able to methodically expand their control over more and more territory, harming more and more innocent people, despite harsh rhetoric and public posturing of American leaders. Then something changed.

In 1977, Ronald Reagan (now famously) explained his policy on the “evil empire” that was confronting traditional, liberty-loving Americans of the time.

“My idea of American policy toward the Soviet Union is simple, and some would say simplistic,” he said. “It is this: We win and they lose.”

This was not the first time he expressed the sentiment. Over a decade earlier, he explained it this way:

We’re at war with the most dangerous enemy that has ever faced mankind in his long climb from the swamp to the stars, and it’s been said if we lose that war, and in so doing lose this way of freedom of ours, history will record with the greatest astonishment that those who had the most to lose did the least to prevent its happening.

In hindsight, it seems almost predictable that America would prevail in that struggle, but for decades, American leadership had lacked the moral clarity to actually get serious and confront the great evil of the time.

In recent years, “America’s Cold Civil War” has reflected the silent majority’s unwillingness to confront the growing evil now within America. Instead, they pursue a broader sense of relative peace between both sides through acquiescing to unceasing, radical demands. Now, something has changed.

In the wake of the tragic killing of Iryna Zarutska and the assassination of Charlie Kirk, it seems we have finally reached a turning point.

There now is a palpable change in the atmosphere of conservative spaces—a deeper recognition of the existential Cold War playing out on American soil. There is evil among us that must be peacefully confronted.

As conservatives confront forces of evil in the modern world, the wisdom and moral clarity of President Reagan, which triumphed over the evil political establishment of that time, should guide us once again:

You and I have the courage to say to our enemies, “There is a price we will not pay.” “There is a point beyond which they must not advance.” And this - this is the meaning in the phrase of Barry Goldwater’s “peace through strength.” Winston Churchill said, “The destiny of man is not measured by material computations. When great forces are on the move in the world, we learn we’re spirits - not animals.” And he said, “There’s something going on in time and space, and beyond time and space, which, whether we like it or not, spells duty.”

You and I have a rendezvous with destiny.

The great task now remaining before us, the living, is to dedicate increased devotion to that cause for which Charlie Kirk gave his life, as his widowed wife implores us.

This work will require personal sacrifices, but none so great as that which Charlie Kirk made. It does not require the sacrifices that so many American soldiers have made.

It only requires that we recognize advocates of evil and are dedicated to ensuring that “We win and they lose.”

Together with God’s help, we can and will resolve the problems which now confront us.

Please, pray for the late Charlie Kirk, his widowed wife, and his children.

(Note from Andrea Widburg: The last quotation comes from Ronald Reagan's 1964 speech, now known as “A Time for Choosing.” If you've never listened to it before, listen to it now. Its wisdom is timeless and powerful.)