On the right, there’s a self-pitying narrative that’s taken hold, in which democracy and conventional political activism are hopeless, and the conservative movement has been doing nothing but losing for decades. The 1990s thinker Sam Francis has recently enjoyed something of a resurgence. Writing in 1994, he argued,
American conservatism, in other words, is a failure, and all the think tanks, magazines, direct-mail barons, inaugural balls, and campaign buttons cannot disguise or alter it. Virtually every cause to which conservatives have attached themselves for the past three generations has been lost, and the tide of political and cultural battle is not likely to turn anytime soon.
While Francis’ argument about the neo-conservative domination of the right is now dated, modern writers echo his pessimistic understanding of the history of the movement. An author for The Federalist writes “the conservative project has largely failed, and it is time for a new approach.” This new approach usually involves being more willing to play tough in order to defeat the left. This understanding of why conservatism has failed is today associated with what David Brooks calls the “New Right.” Instead of gathering a bunch of quotes myself, I’ll just quote from his profile of the movement:
Don't take my word for it. In a recent symposium published by The American Conservative, editor of American Affairs Julius Krein (echoing his colleague Gladden Pappin) complains that “contemporary conservatism” lacks “a serious approach to wielding political power.” Hillsdale College’s David Azerrad argues that conservatives must learn to be “manly,” “combative,” and “comfortable” using “the levers of state power…to reward friends and punish enemies.” And Claremont's Matthew J. Peterson insists that “conservatism must not merely make arguments…it must act on them, wielding ‘regime-level’ power in the service of good political order to do so.”
How much of this is true? One problem with these debates is they often aren’t exactly clear what is meant by the “right” or “left.” There is also a tendency to observe what is happening at too general of a level, since it’s possible for the right to win on certain issues and the left to win on others. What this means is that the idea that “conservatives always lose” is falsifiable. One simply has to find a number of issues on which public policy has moved right in recent decades.
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Isn’t this what Vivek Ramaswany’s whole campaign is about? Publicizing the easy anti-woke levers that can be pulled to incorporate doing so into the Republican platform? I think there’s reason to have hope in this arena.
This is absolutely ridiculous. The only reason home schooling is on the rise is because the left controls the major institutions so much that its basically impossible to stop them at this point so parenta just take their kids out of public schools or never put them there to begin with
The left controls every major institution from Hollywood, public school system, media, the fbi, the cia etc. hell even the military is going woke at this point. The conservatives bascially have nothing.
Yes tax cuts for corporations which many right wingers dont even care about is one thing conservatives have won on. Guns in some ways like you pointed out. However guns used to be allowed in school. they used to have gun clubs back in the day. They also didn't always have automatic gun bans or bump stock bans. guns are a mixed bag but I see even republicans starting to cave on gun rights and even supporting red flag laws. I wouldn't consider that a win.
Abortion the most recent win was just a reversal of a former loss. its not like there's a national ban on abortion. Its a stalemate.
Conservatives have lost on all the LGBT issues, so much so that now pedofillia is becoming next up for the left to normalize. Femenism is so normalized that many women refuse to have kids. The left has also steamrolled the right on bascially every racial and immigration issue which isn't just about a white majority. Much more to the topic than that. Conservatives have gotton their ass beat so bad time and time again that many have embraced moderate left wing views thinking these are right wing views. Not realizing the right wing view on the issue is so far outside the new ovetin window you cant even see it anymore. Not to mention the embracement of trans conservatives like Bruce Jenner, who killed someone btw but hey he's a trans conservative so who cares. What we have now is two socially left parties, one that wants less taxes and more guns and one that wants more taxes and less guns. With everything else fairy similar but one just being more moderate than the other on a given issue but neither fundimentally opposing each other on the given cultural issue. Its why I no longer vote republican because it's pointless. At least if the left dominates government they typically push the view point too far too fast and its rejected by most people. When conservatives are able to get into power in similar numbers all they do is slow it down which is worse because then it boils the frog and becomes normalized. Conservatives on most issues just do more harm than good. As someone once said Conservatism in America is just progressism driving at the speed limit and unfortunately that has become true. Im convinced the conservatives at the top dont even want to win.
the only way out is a parallel society and telling the federal government to fuck off we're doing what we want.