Conservative Lessons Learned from the Siege of Berlin

By Robby Kendall

Reading through the account given by the Soviet Union of the German capital’s conquering, you can’t help but realize an important point in regard to the Soviet mindset: decisive victory was the only possible option. Not just winning, but winning emphatically.

Soviet leaders realized the Berlin victory was as much an important message to what would become of the post-war world as it was of the crushing defeat of the evil Nazi empire. According to my research, the Russians destroyed everything in the Berliners’ paths during the May 1945 siege of the city because they made a conscientious decision to take the capital, notwithstanding anything that would stop them. Whether adversary or not, people were dealt with accordingly.

The Russians lost more than 100,000 men – viewing their infantry as dispensable, all in the name of polishing off the enemy – in the taking of Berlin. In hindsight, we see the armies could have simply outlasted German forces inside Berlin and forced them to either surrender or die of hunger. Their goal was to make a powerful statement that Russia would be one of two dominant players in the post-war world.

The tale of the Soviet Union’s self-imposed blood bath to take Berlin left me thinking about today’s current political climate and what I believe the conservative movement can learn from it. I know it is unfathomable to think about conservatives learning from Communists in their battle to dethrone the warped views of liberalism that dominates our modern government. However, there are some valuable metaphorical observations that can be salvaged. Again, all comparisons being made are metaphorical, as I am not in any way advocating violence.

One thing the Soviets understood in the war against the Nazis was the battle only ends when the enemy concedes an unconditional surrender. The war was not won with one battle, as well as it wasn’t lost either.

To be frank, since President Ronald Reagan left office, left-wing foot soldiers have been better than ours. They have been more dedicated, intense and willing to sacrifice for their cause. When it comes to capturing the attention of politicians and getting the left’s agenda recognition, they are formidable winners. The President is Barak Obama, the Speaker of the House is Nancy Pelosi and the Senate Majority Leader is Sen. Harry Reid, all who have waved good-bye to rational thinking a long time ago.

They are the ones who dictate current policy, and not because their ideas are better, but because their minions were more dedicated to advancing left-wing initiatives. Their drones are willing to go head on into certain “death” as the Soviet armies did to take Berlin, just like the Russians emerged with the power.

Our own state of North Carolina has a terribly uncreative, uninspiring and unchanging government. We are more than $2 billion dollars in debt, yet we can’t graduate one out of four kids that walk into a high school. Our executive leadership finds itself more in trouble and less accessible, rather than pro-active and decisive. We had a sitting Governor that was completely inaccessible, unaccountable and more content to leave the problems of today on the next administration’s desk rather than take action to try and solve them himself.

Yet once again, the Democrats won North Carolina. I spent the months of September and October interviewing statewide and national candidates on my radio show. As they were here stumping for votes, the reason for the inevitable defeat of the Republican Party became clear; no vision, no path to shrink government, no reason to vote for Republican candidates.

With those thoughts in mind, my challenge to conservative friends is this: start treating every political battle the same way the Soviets treated Berlin. Don’t step aside or attempt to win friends in the name of being moderate, bi-partisan or cooperative. That way of thinking ended up giving us leaders like President George Bush and Sen. John McCain. It is time for a new conservative movement. Sure, in order to become the ultimate victors, there will be casualties. The fight will be long, brutal and tiresome, but don’t count the “bodies” from day to day. In the end, we will prevail.

It’s not like we haven’t been down this road before. The road map lies in front of us. In 1964, the Republicans nominated Barry Goldwater for president, yet he was soundly defeated by President Lyndon Johnson. Goldwater took the body blows at the time, so that in 1980 Reagan was able to take the country by storm and bring about the greatest level of prosperity and growth. Conservatism can and does work. We just need brave foot soldiers, who are willing to fight the fight, and sacrifice in order to claim the capital, even if that means losing a few good men (or in this case elections) along the way.

Robby Kendall is the owner of WTXY 1540 AM in Columbus County. He can be heard weekdays from 10 a.m. to noon. You can listen online at WTXY1540.com. The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the writer and do not necessarily reflect the views or opinions for Civitas or its staff.