Posted on 01/08/2024 6:45:11 AM PST by RoosterRedux
The Right is reorganizing. Most intelligent conservatives, especially younger conservatives, who joined the political fray at a moment of sweeping ideological change, already recognize that familiar orthodoxies are no longer viable, and that ideas without power are useless. The Right doesn’t need a white paper. What it needs is a spirited new activism with the courage and resolve to win back the language, recapture institutions, and reorient the state toward rightful ends.
This essay will introduce the basic principles of this activism: where it begins, how it might work, and what it must do in order to win. It is not “conservative” in the traditional sense. The world of eighteenth- and nineteenth-century liberalism is gone, and conservatives must grapple with the world as it is — a status quo that requires not conservation, but reform, and even revolt.
We don’t need to abandon the principles of natural right, limited government, and individual liberty, but we need to make those principles meaningful in the world of today. The older conservative establishment, assembling in ballrooms and clubhouses, has marginal influence over public orthodoxy because it lacks the hunger and grit to contest it. The energy is with a new generation which no longer accepts tired platitudes, and demands a new set of strategies geared toward truly overcoming the regime — the opaque and coercive set of psychological, cultural, and institutional patterns that has largely replaced the old constitutional way of life.
This movement is in its youth, and it has the virtue of aspiring to something more than the drab, euphemistic world of “diversity and inclusion”; it has the ambition of re-establishing a political vision that goes beyond procedural values and points toward higher principles.
***
The first step is to admit what hasn’t worked. For fifty years, establishment conservatives have been retreating from the great political tradition of the West — republican self-government, shared moral standards, and the pursuit of eudaimonia, or human flourishing — in favor of half-measures and cheap substitutes.
The first of these substitutes is the self-serving myth of neutrality. Following a libertarian line, the conservative establishment has argued that government, state universities, and public schools should be “neutral” in their approach to political ideals. But no institution can be neutral — and any institutional authority aiming only for neutrality will immediately be captured by a faction more committed to imposing ideology. In reality, public universities, public schools, and other cultural institutions have long been dominated by the Left. Conservative ideas and values have been suppressed, conservative thinkers have been persecuted, and the conservative establishment has deluded itself with impotent appeals to neutrality.
The popular slogan that “facts don’t care about your feelings” betrays similar problems. In reality, feelings almost always overpower facts. Reason is the slave of the passions. Political life moves on narrative, emotion, scandal, anger, hope, and faith — on irrational, or at least subrational, feelings that can be channeled, but never destroyed by reason. As sociologist Max Weber demonstrated more than a century ago, politics does not, and cannot, operate on facts alone. Politics depends on values and requires judgment; political life is not a utilitarian equation — and nor should we want it to be.
Finally, the conservative establishment has appealed to the “free marketplace of ideas,” and the belief that the “invisible hand” will rectify cultural and political problems organically. But the formation of culture does not proceed like the production of cars, and cannot be conceived the same way. The chief vectors for the transmission of values — the public school, the public university, and the state — are not marketplaces at all. They are government-run monopolies. In truth, the hand that moves culture is not an “invisible hand” but an iron hand clad in velvet — that is, political force.
The adoption of these myths has rendered the Right ineffective, to the point of cementing, as opposed to contesting, the status quo of Leftist hegemony. The radical Left ruthlessly advances through the institutions, and the Right meekly ratifies each encroachment under the rubric of “neutrality.” In view of the social and cultural wreckage this dynamic had wrought, it is not merely a matter of preference but a matter of urgency to break it. To do this, a new approach is required.
(Excerpt) Read more at im1776.com ...
“reorganizing”
BS. Not a SINGLE 1/6 demonstration in my state.
While the left marches on, I’m the most outspoken ‘rightwinger’ in my sphere.
It’s rather pathetic, but I acknowledge the total loss of the left coast and that I remain here due to family needs.
Bottom line, from my chair the intimidation campaign was a stunning success.
.
Well, you at least read the first sentence before commenting.;-)
This movement is in its youth, and it has the virtue of aspiring to something more than the drab, euphemistic world of “diversity and inclusion”; it has the ambition of re-establishing a political vision that goes beyond procedural values and points toward higher principles.
Dismissing actual wins as "BS" is typical keyboard warrior cowardice.
The Tea Party has always existed and always will. In one form or another.
I feel somewhat comforted that we are a well armed populous.
That must be enough. For every Paine, Washington, and Jefferson, there are a hundred nameless men who spilled ink, and blood, for the fight. In our time, the Right will soon be confronted with a choice: to submit to the current regime, to revitalize the vision of the Founders, or to forge ahead into an unknown order. My commitment is to the old means and the old ends, as much as we can rescue them. This will require the spirit of brotherhood, sacrifice, daring, and selflessness. As the battle begins, we will learn and adapt. But one thing is clear: the fight is here.
If I shake you awake in the middle of the night and ask what are you fighting for, after you reach for your gun, what do you tell me?
Wishful thinking…the right is sitting whining about how there’s a double standard, why so and so is not eligible, that fill-in-the- blank “must resign”, and other useless blather.
The energy is with a new generation which no longer accepts tired platitudes, and demands a new set of strategies geared toward truly overcoming the regime — the opaque and coercive set of psychological, cultural, and institutional patterns that has largely replaced the old constitutional way of life.This movement is in its youth, and it has the virtue of aspiring to something more than the drab, euphemistic world of “diversity and inclusion”; it has the ambition of re-establishing a political vision that goes beyond procedural values and points toward higher principles.
The difference between the Left and the Right is philosophical. The Left sees institutions as a means to an end, the Right see institutions as a necessary evil that they must tolerate. So, the Left captures the institutions, remakes them in their image and uses them to make top-down changes in society. Conservative by their nature abhor top-down governance and see it as anathema to everything they believe in. That’s why when we make the argument, we just want to be left alone to live our lives, the foundation of conservatism, we lose. Unlike the Right, the Left will not allow that. They use their control of big government and top-down ordering of society in a way we do not want to do nor are built to do. Recapturing the institutions is not how we win. We will never win playing their game, it’s not who we are. We could benefit from taking back language and not playing by their rules and accepting their premises. But the only way to break the cycle and end the tyranny, is to shrink the influence of government in people’s everyday lives. If government doesn’t matter, then it doesn’t matter who runs the government. But that would involve a massive cutting of the bureaucracy and the ending of thousands of government programs. But we are all somehow connected to the public teat, and most are unwilling or unable to give up our piece of the safety net. And the Left knows that and has turned the safety net into a spider web.
Sadly, our best hope is to probably wait for the coming, inevitable economic and societal collapse and then try to position ourselves as the rebuilders of the new society that will follow.
“The Right doesn’t need a white paper. What it needs is a spirited new activism with the courage and resolve to win back the language, recapture institutions, and reorient the state toward rightful ends.”
Absolutely! ACTIVISTS determine, set and enforce the agenda everywhere in the world.
Look how many times you see the word “activists” in a headline.
They take to the streets, get in politicians and CEO’s faces, terrorize them, organize, infiltrate every single type of institution and organization, and institutionalize their agenda.
And they are relentless - losing an election for them is just a small bump in the road and only motivates them to double down.
The left has an army of them - young, passionate and organized. Sadly our side has only a platoon or two.
Rufo is definitely one of them and I commend him. We need many, many more!
I guess what it comes down to is the left is much more committed to their values and beliefs than we are to ours. Maybe things haven’t gotten miserable enough for our side to cause us to get off our asses.
Abandoning reading comprehension for bias to pursue an ad hominem attack against someone who ought be an ally reinforces my position in the megaton range...
...and validates my repeated statements about 'back plate'.
That’s right.
‘Reorganizing’ is, in this century when not referencing the left, synonymous with laissez faire.
/s
This piece is one man’s rant. The last 2 sentences:
“My commitment is to the old means and the old ends, as much as we can rescue them. This will require the spirit of brotherhood, sacrifice, daring, and selflessness. As the battle begins, we will learn and adapt. But one thing is clear: the fight is here.”
The money quote:
“This will require the spirit of brotherhood, sacrifice, daring, and selflessness.”
Now reread my comment and the comments replying to mine, including your own.
I don’t want to be right. In fact, being right on this outrages me to my core.
But there it is.
He's the guy that brought down Claudine Gay at Harvard. That's a major blow against the Left and DEI.
In all due respect, I think you are jumping on a few things that Rufo said that upset you and not considering the entire article in context with all that's he's been doing and saying.
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