Over the past year or so I’ve observed a troubling trend on the political right.
American conservatism has started to mimic the American left in many regards. It didn’t just start recently, but the pantomiming has become more pronounced fairly recently with the advent of Donald Trump and the populist right (and to a lesser extent the alt-right).
Essentially we’ve become what we’ve railed against for decades. We’ve built our own separate media establishment, biased and opinionated and insulated from the facts. We’ve built up our own sacred cows and insulated them from criticism; no one may dare attack St. Ronald or St. Barry or speak blasphemies against our pantheon of founding gods or our holy document written 200 years. Race most certainly matters to us, oh how it matters to us, we love our numinous Negroes, our holy Hispanics, our awesome Asians. While the left’s victims are minorities and women, ours are the aggrieved, angry white men. We have created a parallel conservative P.C. culture.
In doing so we’ve lost our credibility when speaking out against a mainstream liberal news media or leftist academia or leftist victimologists or the social justice P.C. crowd who are offended by everything.
The conservative movement of 2016 is simply the mirror image of their counterpart on the left now.
Don’t believe me? We’re about to enter the holiday season and for the past two decades we’ve complained about a so-called “War against Christmas.” In the process we’ve attempted to cajole private companies into requiring their employees to greet customers with a cheery “Merry Christmas!,” dictated how coffee stands decorate their cups and what displays and decorations are put up in businesses.
We do so through our networks on social media, through letter writing campaigns, through denouncements by friendly elected officials and celebrities and even protests and boycotts. We use our media machine to reinforce the notion that we’re put upon, that we’re victims of a concerted efforts by secularists and humanists who want to wipe out Christianity in America.
Now how is that any different from when liberals decide they don’t like a company’s policy position or action?
But when they mobilize we respond by calling them “whiners” or “losers” and tell them to “grow up” and to leave private businesses alone. When liberals demand action of a company we’re quick to yell free speech or private property or play the victim card.
To my main point, conservatives have validated the tactics and techniques of liberals. As conservatives, we should be frightened by this because that symbolizes an abandonment of what makes conservatism conservative. It strikes at the very essence of our movement and philosophy. We’re not consistent; we’re far too willing to abandon principles for the sake of political expediency. Both sides are now using the same playbook to fight and win.
Conservatives can and should do better.