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I believe America would be a better place if social conservatives were in charge. .... BUT ..... Since we cannot change .... the system by which governments come to power here, I want socons to adopt the secular humanist approach to politics, which is to never lose an election by scaring the idiots who vote. ... If socons feel called to be Jeremiah, that’s fine .... But they should then stop pretending that by participating in elections that they expect to make things better.

And you don't see a problem with your position? No internal contradictions, no cognitive dissonance? You might want to re-read the condensed version of your post above.

It reads like the Straussian take on hell: "If we must burn with the idiots down the street, then it were better that we not make a fuss about it; let them proceed as fools and sinners and burn us all, than disturb their depravity and scare them farther into the charms and arms of Lord Moloch."

You and Christopher Caldwell over at The Weekly Standard would seem to get along fine. He appears to want social conservatives, especially the Southern ones, to solve our problems by emigrating.

Thanks for the thoughtful response.

I don’t actually think that distinguishing between elections as a tool and underlying philosophy - the first mutable and adaptive, the second granite-like and unchanging - creates cognitive dissonance.

I’m not sure that “democracy”, which is a fair approximation of what we have now, can possibly deliver a government of virtue based upon truth. If so, it may be foolish to be discussing electoral tactics.

But since I’m too old to go bushwhacking, I still think it’s worth trying to get virtuous leaders chosen through the process that we have. To my mind, this entails choosing candidates who can not “scare the horses” with opinions that large majorities abhor.

One of the reasons that the Left has become so powerful is that their candidates are experts at deception.

I now believe that this is a necessary part of the devil’s bargain of choosing leaders by election, and I wish our guys were better at it.

So, your objection to my thoughts - that they are internally contradictory - doesn’t hold up.

Thanks, however, for the food for thought. I will certainly think about it further.