The Long Game: A Cultural Manifesto
My reaction to the election is now up at City Journal: The Long Game. It’s by way of a cultural manifesto:
Life is short, said Hippocrates, but art is long. There is a practical corollary to that great truth: elections are won and lost in the politics of the moment, but it’s the culture that makes the nation.
In the aftermath of President Obama’s victory, conservative political thinkers will have to ask themselves some hard questions. How much of our defeat was due to strategy and how much to structure? How can we reach out to struggling workers without sacrificing our commitment to free enterprise and individual liberty? How can we speak to single women without losing voters committed to family values and the lives of the unborn? How can we welcome the children of illegal immigrants without compromising our belief in the rule of law?
The smartest political writers in the country, all of whom are conservative, will now be addressing those questions. I’m an artist; I play the long game.
To win that game, to create an electorate more deeply committed to true liberty and resistant to the sort of cultural scare tactics the president’s campaign team used so effectively, there are three areas to which conservatives need to commit intellectual and financial resources—three areas that our intelligentsia and funders, in their impractical practicality, too often ignore.
Read the rest here.
We already know the answer. (Thanks Mr. Jefferson…)
“We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which, would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.”
YES I am talking about secession…
I hate to be pessimistic, but the truth is that the modern unwashed masses do not want liberty.
What the masses want more than anything is the life of a pet store gerbil. The pet store gerbil has no liberty, but he is happy nonetheless. He is happy because all of his needs are provided for, from cradle to grave, by a benevolent overseer. He does not struggle, he does not strive, he does not worry. He wants for nothing.
This is the live that the masses want, and this is what they will vote for. Every time.
We few, we happy few, who love liberty often forget that we are the minority in the modern US of A. My prediction is that from now on, every 4 years, we will get a depressing reminder of this.
The reminders will come far more often than every four years. Our friends like Cynical Wonder have nothing better to do than gloat. I pity their depravity. We’re all going to sink together.
Defeat is no excuse for becoming a fatalist.
Giving up would be the ultimate defeat. It’s always an option, but never a good one. If we are ever to convert the cynics, it won’t come from trying to beat them at their game. We need to radiate pride, joy, confidence and testify why trust in divine providence is reasonable and dependency on the powerful is foolish.
Can they hear the call of freedom if they do not see its fruits? Testify by succeeding. It’s a duty.
Thank you for that piece Andrew. I’ve read it all and promoted it to FB for what it’s worth.
You’ve just steeled by resolve to help being a culture changer through the arts.
It’s been something I’ve been toying with for several years and now I have the opportunity (novels and perhaps later film adaptations).
It is a long game, but that’s where the war is won.
As usual, great, incisive analysis. Whatever one is espousing- the logical advantages of conservatism, the claims of a Judeo-Christian Creator on an individual’s soul- must be able to compete in the open marketplace. That these ideas compete, and are indeed superior, is self-evident. The trick is to train ourselves as instruments who convey that truth in whatever sector of society we find ourselves in an effective way.
Andrew – It sounds like you’re already at Bargaining. I’m two stages behind you, enjoying Denial. It’s so peaceful here. Oh, look, a butterfly! But was it such a rout? Three thousand votes in North Dakota and one less rape in Missouri, and it’s a wash. The Republicans lost an opportunity, and time out of office has consequences, but nothing has changed. It’s still Obama, Reid, Boehner, Roberts.
You’re right to emphasize religion. Culture is upstream from politics, and religion is upstream from culture. The idea that Mitt Romney is too militantly pro-life for mainstream America should be pretty sobering to the movement.
As to the press: I read a recent article (maybe in Slate) about this. It said that the right-wing New Media has lost ground. For a while, it had been a counterweight to the mainstream media. Now, with the rise of Media Matters, MSNBC, et cetera, the right-wing-targeted media is a counterweight to the left-wing-targeted media. The mainstream media looks like the non-partisan middle again. Interesting idea.
It is the false social theories of progressivism, fueled by the myth of evolution (that things are constantly improving), that have led us here. And I suspect that the next four years will provide plenty of empirical evidence that the human condition is not, in fact, improving.
Although this was written quite a while ago, I think its still quite relevant. I’d love to hear your thoughts: https://docs.google.com/open?id=0B487M8KEkpHZaFdBRTlOU3V3ZVk
In LBJ era Texas, the tallies for the two southernmost counties were held until the last, then revealed for sufficient amounts to edge the challenger. Did any of the few hundred thousand vote difference swing states go Republican? No matter. What if Romney had won by a few electoral votes? An automatic ten years of disgruntled misinformed, seeking vengeance. I believe I voted for certain ideas. Many Obama supporters I talked with revealed reasons like “I like the way he talks.” I took the depressing day after to inquire with opposing colleagues as to why they are Democrats. The answers were so enlightening simple, e.g. they knew the name Cook, but not Sorros. We can’t be defensive or angry any longer. There has to be time. Much of Obama’s PPACA will probably crumble from it’s own weight. The emperor’s clothes were starting to fade pre-election, now he has ample time to reveal himself.