“ How does actual conservatism gain a true foothold on a landscape in which transgender activists and climate alarmists, on the one hand, and drool-besotted followers of a presidential candidate who hawks pieces of his suit, calendars depicting himself in various macho fantasy settings, golden athletic shoes and sixty-dollar Bibles on the other have the loudest voices and are motivated by a killer instinct?”
The only thing I can see having a chance is for those of us who believe in conserving the principles of the American founding, support free enterprise, and believe in a transcendent moral order to articulate those ideas clearly and defend them to anyone willing to listen. If anything, the unnappealing quality of the alternatives may make people more open to a genuine alternative. If we believe those ideas are correct, we have to believe that they are worth defending. And we have to believe that (many) people can come to be persuaded by them. Perhaps that sounds naive, “just defend conservative principles and hope people are convinced,” but that is all we can do. We live in a world in which there are no easy solutions to complex problems and we are very limited in what we can achieve. Other people do not belong to us, so the best we can hope for is to persuade them. But even if it is a hopeless cause, if it is a worthy cause, then it shouldn’t matter to us what the outcome will be - we should still defend our ideas anyway, regardless of whether we win any political fight.
“ How does actual conservatism gain a true foothold on a landscape in which transgender activists and climate alarmists, on the one hand, and drool-besotted followers of a presidential candidate who hawks pieces of his suit, calendars depicting himself in various macho fantasy settings, golden athletic shoes and sixty-dollar Bibles on the other have the loudest voices and are motivated by a killer instinct?”
The only thing I can see having a chance is for those of us who believe in conserving the principles of the American founding, support free enterprise, and believe in a transcendent moral order to articulate those ideas clearly and defend them to anyone willing to listen. If anything, the unnappealing quality of the alternatives may make people more open to a genuine alternative. If we believe those ideas are correct, we have to believe that they are worth defending. And we have to believe that (many) people can come to be persuaded by them. Perhaps that sounds naive, “just defend conservative principles and hope people are convinced,” but that is all we can do. We live in a world in which there are no easy solutions to complex problems and we are very limited in what we can achieve. Other people do not belong to us, so the best we can hope for is to persuade them. But even if it is a hopeless cause, if it is a worthy cause, then it shouldn’t matter to us what the outcome will be - we should still defend our ideas anyway, regardless of whether we win any political fight.