Posted on 04/10/2021 6:27:28 AM PDT by Kaslin
Left-wingers have always had a knack for activism. In the '60s and '70s, they were the ones flooding the streets, protesting civil rights violations and the Vietnam War. Now, they're conjuring Twitter mobs out of thin air, organizing boycotts galore, and hectoring politicians, celebrities, corporate CEOs, and even their family members, friends, and neighbors, in response to any and all perceived violations of wokeness. Leftists seem always to be poised on a hair-trigger, ready to pounce on their enemies, and when they do...God help whomever bears the brunt of their searing wrath.
Often, we hear the argument on the right: why can't we be as organized, as shrill, and as relentless as the Left? Why are corporate boards and advertisers, for instance, seemingly unafraid of offending us, when they blanch in terror at the first sight of a progressive with an upraised fist?
The answer, as usual, is staring us in the face: no one is afraid of us because we aren't scary in the least. Conservatives are mild-mannered (by and large), law-abiding, church-going, family-oriented, and usually polite and deferential. Heck, most of us even have jobs, which makes throwing rotten produce, or hurling digital invective, at those we find disagreeable difficult to reconcile with our busy schedules.
President Trump recently encouraged conservatives, and not for the first time, to follow the Left's playbook and begin boycotting companies that publicly condemned Georgia's new voting law. Let Coke, Delta, and Major League Baseball have it! “Don’t go back to their products until they relent.”
And, in response, you guessed it: Coke, Delta, and baseball didn't bat an eyelash. In fact, the MLB Commissioner wasted no time in moving the All-Star game from Atlanta to Denver. Meanwhile, have Coke, Delta, or Major League Baseball's profits withered overnight? Hardly. In fact, we have no reason to suppose even that President Trump has given up his beloved Diet Coke, which for him is the elixir of life.
The lesson here? Conservatives will simply never be as ruthless as progressives. We don't believe in the politicization of every consumer decision. We don't seethe with rage in our spare time, waiting to be told who and what to hate next. Besides which, we're not naive enough to believe that, if Coke, Delta, and Major League Baseball occasionally knuckle under to leftist intimidation, that makes Pepsi, or United, or the NFL any better. Give them time: they'll disappoint us with their cravenness too.
The answer, I suggest, is to organize conservatives as much as possible not around protests, boycotts, and upsurges of outrage, as around positive demonstrations of solidarity with those rare — very rare! — politicians, celebrities, corporations, organizations, and ordinary citizens who make themselves conspicuous by their decency, their rationality, and their patriotism. If the symbol of leftism is the clenched fist, then why not make the symbol of conservatism the high five?
The most successful demonstration of such constructive conservative “activism” in recent years was the failed leftist boycott of Goya Foods, and the much more effective right-wing “buycott” that followed it. When Goya CEO Robert Unanue, a Hispanic, triggered liberals with his praise of President Trump in July 2020, they vowed to bring his company to its knees. Conservatives, however, rallied, and many, including me, bought Goya products for the first time in our lives. Goya sales soared.
Americans of all stripes already know that leftists can be powerful, implacable, and vicious enemies. There's no need for conservatives to demonstrate the same malice and fanaticism. Instead, let's show that we can be loyal and generous friends to those who have the courage to stand up to the Left's incessant tirades and bullying.
After all, as Ben Franklin once reminded us: you can catch more flies with honey than you can with vinegar.
Waiting for a conservative entrepreneur to bring bank Aunt Jemima, Uncle Ben, et al. New and improved versions, of course. Whoever corporately ditched those names must forfeit their use in branding.
Retired conservatives ought to give serious thought to placement on local school boards, city councils, etc.
Don’t be like Democrat “activists”.
Absolutely. Much better to be a doormat Republican and surrender the political battlefield to Democrat fascists.
Finishing last while obeying the rules is no vice. Finishing first while obeying the Constitution is the end all.
We won’t win this being nice
Btw....the klan and the weathermen had not nothing in common...Polar opposites
And the the klan ostensibly democrats from Wilson through Johnson ...you could argue that though many klan leaned more Birchers .....the klan simply wasn’t that smart .....the White Citizens Council....sort of a fancy bloodless klan....were staunch John Birch society fans
The weatherman hated the democrat party and loathed LBJ
I know Glenn Beck and talk radio and NRO love to pimp simpleton political history
But it’s inaccurate ....wholly
And it pins hopes on the GOPe
Well I for one...learned my lesson the morning after the election when the Republican Party abandoned our president
Equating conservatism or constitutionalism with the GOPe from 1860-2021 is a lie ....simply put
The path of politics is far more complicated
It’s just how it is.....don’t take this personal please
All that aside this war however it turns won’t be won by the meek...it’ll be stoked initially by folks many here eschew.....
" If the symbol of leftism is the clenched fist, then why not make the symbol of conservatism the high five?"....fly the American flag proudly...and don't let some real estate salespeople tell you not to have the American flag waving in your yard if you want to sell your property.....yeah that is happening too.
Democrat Enforcers
NEW Democrat Enforcers
Both became establishment.
Weather Underground ARE academia now
Their progeny are the law (District Attorney) and mentor presidents.
Stop right there and try to recognize where your true naïveté lies.
Corporate actions aren't shaped by leftists. Corporate leaders use leftists to shape the future they plan. If CEO's are not in agreement with the headed direction they can always leave.
From the investors.com article:
With ESG filters part of investing, if you make a personal mistake, "You're toast," Crist said. "When a board looks at a CEO, part of their performance review is the judgment of the CEO in terms of ... business judgment (and) personal judgment," he said.
Then again, there are the True Believers. Here's an example from Wikipedia I'd guess few have heard of... Ray Smith. ...Over the years, Smith has served on the boards of Bell Atlantic, the Carnegie Corporation, Westinghouse, CBS, Corestates Financial, First Union (now Wells Fargo), US Airways, NTT DoCoMo, the Carnegie Corporation Board of Trustees; the Rockefeller Foundation, the Lincoln Center Board of Trustees, President’s Committee on the Arts & Humanities, University of Pittsburgh Board of Trustees, the Philadelphia Orchestra-Director, National Forum on Education & Technology, President’s Committee for Educational Technology-Founding Member, Board of Overseers of the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences-University of Pennsylvania, Board of Visitors of the Fuqua School of Business-Duke University, the Urban Affairs Partnership-Director, the Franklin Institute-Director, the Business Roundtable, Business Higher Education Forum, Challenger Center for Space Science Education Board, Private Sector Council – National Advisory Board, Arden Theater Company – Board of Advisors, Bell Communications Research, Inc.-Director, AMPS, Inc., Philadelphia Urban Coalition-Director, United Way of Southeastern Pennsylvania–Director and chairman of the Management Committee, Delaware Valley Regional Energy Council-Chairman, Philadelphia Industrial Development Corporation-Executive Board, and Philadelphia Economic Advisory Board-Chairman
>>you could argue that though many klan leaned more Birchers
Bullsheet
Klan first and foremost were antis.
anti-Catholic
anti-black
anti-Jew
anti-Republican
It was their sum total cause.
That’s true there were anti ...so are we btw....however they had zero in common with the leftists you claim they did
They believed all those groups were allied with the very leftists who they viewers soft on communism ...you’re attempting to lump them in with
Do you by chance recall the Greensboro shootout ....klan versus commies ....commies chose poorly
https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/communists-and-klansmen-clash-in-greensboro
They sure didn’t act like pals did they?
Talk radio and neocons have done such a disservice in this area with this just insane logic and GOPe worship
The truth is simply muddier ....simple lies are easier to understand
This is conjecture but sometime in the latter part of the Reagan years ....as neoconservatism ascended under Bushism.....it was determined that the Republican Party was embarrassed by the solid south and accusations of racism....like I said before the far left did not like mainstream democrats...who they viewed as war hawks and segregationist anti communist and liberal republicans had escaped such charges largely
With GOPe ranks swelled with southerners who’d left the moving left Democrat party ....these what culture war ....GOPe neocons pretty much determined we have to do something about this image
Hence .....slavery and racism began to be seen as original sins of America and the West
Civil rights legislation became lauded....I think they were a mistake as did Reagan and Goldwater and other rightist GOP And Dixiecrats ...talk radio is right ....liberal and moderate GOPe pushed all this over the finish line
Fiscal conservatism took prominence over culture war (I think we’ve learned it’s all about culture more than anything)
Foreign policy is nation building
And so forth...Demonizing the south hadn’t yet begun in earnest
That’s how I see it.....but you are welcome to believe narrative makes you content....
I’m about truth and facts....but I’m going to ping two authorities here who can correct me....I tend to SOC write so I’m sure I’ll get some schooling
You should read their response ....they are more informed than I
1968 DNC Convention was old establishment Democrats vs New Democrats.
And Birchers were anti-Uniparty.
Bill Clinton excused so many Democrat politicians having been members of the Klan saying that you HAD to belong to get elected.
“Bill Clinton excused so many Democrat politicians having been members of the Klan saying that you HAD to belong to get elected.”
Other than Robert Byrd, who does that apply to, exactly? What are some names of these “many Democrat politicians”.
This is the sort of claim that has become habitual around here. Conservatives have become willing to emulate the Left’s habit of saying anything if it advances the agenda, facts be damned.
Of course that would require actually knowing the complicated facts of history in the first place. And that isn’t what talk radio and assorted pop “historians” are peddling. Which is where a lot of this bs originates.
I can produce names. How about Edward Jackson, Governor of Indiana? Or Clarence Morley, Governor of Colorado? They were involved with the Klan. But they were also Republicans, so that may not fit the party line.
Fool in Paradise does mention one salient point: the Klan was anti-Catholic. At least the Second Klan was, the one that arose in 1915. That Klan was also anti-alcohol, and had helped pass Prohibition, along with their allies the WCTU.
So if the Klan and the Democratic Party are one and the same, a currently popular freeper meme, how is it that Catholic Al Smith was the Presidential nominee of 1928? And the 1924 nominee, John Davis, was someone who had openly denounced the Klan, and had defended black voting rights when he was Wilson’s solicitor general. Maybe they failed to get the “we are the Klan” memo.
Bill Clinton’s mentor
https://thefederalist.com/2016/09/19/why-is-hillary-clinton-still-honoring-a-segregationist-and-anti-semite/
FDR put a Klansman on the Supreme Court who ruled against Catholic schools using city school buses.
https://www.history.com/news/kkk-supreme-court-hugo-black-fdr
“Americans of all stripes already know that leftists can be powerful, implacable, and vicious enemies. There’s no need for conservatives to demonstrate the same malice and fanaticism. Instead, let’s show that we can be loyal and generous friends to those who have the courage to stand up to the Left’s incessant tirades and bullying.”
This is pure BS. He ends up advocating the strategy that at the beginning of the article he says doesn’t work - be nice.
If somebody comes to you with a credible threat to destroy you and your company if you don’t toe the line, and also someone that says they’ll be nice to you, and that you know 90% of them will continue buying your products even if you toe the line of the other side, what are you going to do?
You do not preserve past achievement with lies. The rationalizations are indefensible!
Attempting to do so discredits your capacity as a witness for anything.
Those who imagine that in the attempt, they are merely "virtue signalling," operate with far far less than the cliched "full deck."
The Second Klan had parallels in the European fascist movements, but due to its somewhat haphazard organization and internal corruption, it was not able to coalesce as a national force, as did Mussolini's Blackshirts. Had the Second Klan enjoyed an effective leader like Mussolini, they might have become a dominant national force. However, unlike Germany or Italy, a heterogeneous population would have led to a civil war. Catholics, Jews, Mormons, liberal Protestants (liberal in the theological sense), and labor unions would have opposed a Klan led Federal government. The industrial Northeast and Midwest, south Louisiana, Utah, and Hispanic dominated areas of the Southwest would have been in open revolt. The minorities probably represented one-third of the population, far higher than the 2% of the population that Jews represented in Germany.
The science fiction author Robert Heinlein wrote a series of Future History stories during the mid-20th Century in which a fundamentalist Protestant evangelist led a national movement that revived the Ku Klux Klan in all but name. The evangelist effectively overthrew the Federal government in the early 21st Century and appointed himself the First Prophet. His Future History was, of course, incorrect, as Marxist ideology, as changed by Antonio Gramsci and the Frankfurt School, has permanently altered the American political landscape.
Oh, why not? Wokey McWokerson numbskulls in boardrooms need to be brought down.
Incidentally, I believe the '20s Klan--before I was born--was more Republican than Democrat in Ohio & Indiana; but recognize it was bipartisan in many areas, while being countered more effectively by many truly Conservative Southern Democrats, such as Harry Byrd and Senator Underwood of Alabama!
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