Sunday, November 9, 2008

What's Next For Conservatism

When you get right down to brass tacks, liberals and ALL left ideologies are paper-based. They are simply ideas and theories that are never going to actually work because they are not grounded in reality, facts, or proper science. Socialism, Communism, Fascism, they are expanded versions of Rousseau's fever dream.

Conservatism is based on the cumulative knowledge of experience, tradition, and reality. Science and facts are guideposts for conservatism because they are foundation stones to civilization and are to be treated with respect. Unlike liberal ideologies which has a history of abusing science by twisting it into a terrible tool like eugenics to further ideological goals.

Yes both right and left have committed wrongs but when you compare the list of atrocities committed by both sides in say the last 300 years, Socialism, Communism, and Fascism easily win the title Biggest Destroyers of Life and the Mind.

Because liberalism is based on a theory which can never be proven (a good thing for liberals since this means they can constantly blame something else for their failures), their leftwing theories have become articles of near-religious faith. Only their belief supports their theories because the facts simply do not. This explains the Liberal rejection of science and facts when confronted because science and facts tear their arguments apart instantly.

And this explains the Left's twisted use of science and facts when they cherry-pick data to support their arguments (arguments which instantly fall apart when confronted non-cherry-picked data). It is almost a guarantee that when someone immediately reacts with a savage ad hominem attack when presented with a fact, that person is a liberal.

Look at political solutions. Look at social and energy programs. Look at the environmental movement. Every single liberal solution has failed. Johan Goldberg was right in Liberal Fascism. Iain Murray was right in The Really Inconvenient Truths. And Bjorn Lomborg was right in The Skeptical Environmentalist. Liberal policies and liberal thinking can not stand because their foundation is not the stones of science, tradition, and facts but the paper of theory and wishful thinking.

The Left hates us not because they are better (they are not, they are name-calling meanies). The Left hates the Right because we are right. Conservatism has real tools made from real history and real science. The Left has some theories and a history of failure.

The way forward is to constantly hammer these facts home to people.

Conservatives have been responding courteuously into the face of a screaming mob. We don't have to be rude but we've got to be better and louder than we ever have before. We have to grab these liberals by their scruffs and drag them into the court of public opinion for a real fair trial of their ideas and methods. Liberals should now be held accountable for their actions. Their actions in government, their actions in the street, their actions in the press. We conservatives can not win this arguement if we stand around wringing our hands and playing the blame game.

We must do this because it is our fault.

We allowed the liberals to take over our foundation institutions, the schools, the press, local government. All of which has put liberals in positions of power their ideology does not merit. And worse, we knew they were doing it - "the long march". They told us what they were doing. We knew it and we let it happen because conservatives put too much faith in our example being the guide.

Well, an example is only as good as it is known. We now need to hold up our good examples of decency, intellect, and tradition so that everyone can see them. We need to change our tactics and start shouting "We're loud, we're proud, and we're here." (yes, I know what I am stealing.)

Conservative values are core values.

They are the instinctive reactions to human experience - purified by tradition, religious faith, science, justice, and the rule of law. We need to be proud of our values and articulate them in ways everyone can understand. We need to be loud and clear. And we need to be here, in the present with an eye to the future.

The past will always be with us as part of our creation but we need to always be working to make our present and future better. Let's keep the foundations of science and tradition bright and clean and a shining example to everyone about what's right with modern life.

By press hook and by fraud crook, the liberals have won this election cycle. Let's lay the groundwork for not only the next election cycle but the next 10 election cycles. Let's start our own long march through institutions.

Obama wants mandatory community service. Fine. Let's set up community organizations that promote conservative values and have the kids volunteer for those. Let's fight to keep church volunteer programs part of the community service.

Let's work on explaining to Alumni why their old schools may be hurting our children's futures and maybe their donations should go to better things.

Let's hit Liberals where it hurts, in their collective guilt by pointing out the harm their ideologies do.

Let's expose the press for what it is, not a free press but slavishly devoted to liberal ideologies. Let's demand better from our newspaper editors by supporting honest local papers and electronic journalists, rather than the urban junk-bond papers of little note. We are in the Information age with an all access pass. We no longer need newspapers to dig up information for us, we have the internet, bloggers, and fellows like Stanley Kurtz for that. Let's fight the press by becoming the press and getting the good and honest words out.

Let's take the fight back. Because it's a good fight. And it's the right fight.

2 comments:

  1. Thanks for the great comments. One nit: it's Jonah Goldberg, not Johan.

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  2. I have been saying much the same thing, albeit less eloquently, for twenty years. They followed the Soviet play book, and we let them.

    Now we have corrupt and corrupting institutions, and a news media unworthy of the name.

    We still have the best ideas, and they have the additional benefit of actually working. We need to get in the faces of our liberal adversaries (for that is what they are), and take back the debate.

    Starting with rejecting McCain's foolish and incoherent program, and focusing on a series of policies that have consistent themes - liberation, freedom, and minimizing the size and scope of government (this position wins every time; even Obama pretended he plans to cut back government).

    A nice post and a good blog, I shall bookmark it and visit regularly henceforth.

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