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Our Rhetorical Disadvantage
In the Notable and Quotable section of the Wall Street Journal this morning, there’s a wonderfully perceptive quotation from How to Be a Conservative, by philosopher Roger Scruton:
Conservatism starts from a sentiment that all mature people can readily share: the sentiment that good things are easily destroyed, but not easily created. This is especially true of the good things that come to us as collective assets: peace, freedom, law, civility, public spirit, the security of property and family life, in all of which we depend on the cooperation of others while having no means singlehandedly to obtain it. In respect of such things, the work of destruction is quick, easy and exhilarating; the work of creation is slow, laborious and dull. That is one of the lessons of the twentieth century. It is also one reason why conservatives suffer such a disadvantage when it comes to public opinion. Their position is true but boring, that of their opponents exciting but false.
Which in turn reminded me of the best illustration of this I’ve ever come across. Campaigning against Barry Goldwater in 1964, President Lyndon Johnson actually said the following:
We’re in favor of a lot of things and we’re against mighty few.
When stated as baldly as that, of course, the liberal position is laughable. But when you’re willing to offer more or less anything to more or less any interest group, you’ve got yourself a nice head start.
Honestly, it’s amazing our side ever wins any elections at all.
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Combine this with differences of means (lawful procedure, refusal to misrepresent and demonize, etc) and it’s clear why Republicans are fools to believe that gradual strategies and compromise can effect significant resistance to government expansion, waste, and harmful incentives. Republicans must do twice as much in the same amount of time to counteract Democrat actions.
Moderation is the course of those who wish to merely manage America’s decline. Only bold actions can actually arrest that decline and offer a brighter future.
This is exactly why a free society depends upon mature, responsible adults who are willing to do the boring, hard work needed.
The perpetual adolescents who pass for adults these days will take the exciting but false every time (see Obama, Barack)
“Honestly, it’s amazing our side ever wins any elections at all.”
Thank heavens for experience. If it weren’t for that, we wouldn’t. The only plus of the Obama years is that a couple of generations are getting an education, “…and deserve to get it good and hard.”
Yup, this is an immense problem for conservatives. It’s why conservative ideas are hard to package. Conservative ideas require thought, and to make matters worse, conservatives would contend that “we think not that we may think, but that we may know.” This means we must judge, not be what we want, but by measuring our desires against the thing as it is. It’s harder to read Aristotle than Plato, because Plato is fun and Aristotle is work.
I purchase Scruton’s book from Audible. So far it is excellent.
I actually don’t think conservative ideas are hard to package. But conservatives have this thing in them that rejects packaging.
Rather than packaging a conservative response to global warming or income inequality or some such, conservatives just announce that it isn’t happening and go home.
“true but boring”
Mark Twain — ‘A lie can travel half way around the world while the truth is putting on its shoes.’
Casey, I think that thing is sometimes called integrity.
Why can’t one have integrity and explain how an innovative free market might solve a problem?
The shallow case is always easier to make. Unfortunately leftism’s solutions to real problems are as shallow as their thinking. In short, they cannot solve problems and make matters worse. That reality becomes clear eventually, but the true leftist bitter clingers never see the light. I’m afraid our nation is full of multitudes of bitter clingers right now. The question is, can sad experience ever teach them to think clearly?
I don’t disagree with where you seem to be going, but it’s hard. We can’t all do it well. I think that’s why things like Ricochet are so valuable. Otherwise we get shouted down before we have the chance to formulate our thoughts and respond.
Paraphrasing Bill Whittle – it is easy to destroy someone of honesty and integrity if you have none of your own.
Ineed. Which is why all the “reflecting” certain conservatives try doing these days to try and figure out “why we lost” and “why some people don’t vote for us” is pointless.
Most people, most of the time, in most of the world, in most of human history, would prefer the “other side”. It’s a rare exception to get what we got in America. So it requires very little “reflection” to figure out why people vote, or are voting in greater number, for liberals.
Not to say that there’s an answer to solving this problem. Simply that, the problem is simple enough to figure out.
And while you may not be able to solve the problem, you can certainly make it worst.
And just like a mass of tweens, our citizens keep opting for and electing the exciting, choosing a path of insanity, even though it is killing us.
People often say that our government is like a parent. These days, nothing is further from the truth, unless our government is the personification of a bad parent. What “good parent” would offer their kids the insanity our government offers to the citizenry?
Some days it seems like our citizens are bunch of kids kicking and screaming for candy in the checkout lane at the grocery store. And mom gives it to them.
Aye Yie Yie.
I like the apocryphal “Chinese curse” because it reminds us of the truth that under-girds conservative opinion:
Casey, I just can’t get this idea of packaging out of my mind. Integrity causes us to see things truthfully and simply, but wisdom requires us to answer in a way that those who do not understand the simple truth can begin to see the light. I think part of Reagan’s greatness was in the packaging. Breitbart and Whittle seem to be good with this, but even they can’t reach everyone. Certainly it seems that few of today’s politicians “get it”. Do you have any additional thoughts along this line?
I’m not really thinking of packaging in a clever sense.
I think for a very long time conservatives saw standing athwart as standing in direct opposition to proposals made by the left. What happened was similar to what happens in negotiation. They propose 2 and we counter zero and we get 1. Soon they caught on and upped to 3 then 4 then 5. Now we are getting 2.5. Sick of losing this game, conservatives seek to knock the whole chess board over. Deny the problem.
I’d prefer we got out ahead with our own solution. That’s the packaging I mean.
Our disadvantage is not only rhetorical; it is attitudinal and based, I submit, in hubris. Accelerating, near miraculous, mastery of the physical world – the world of materials and things – has led to the delusion that society can be mastered as well, through the same techne. This, in turn, has reinforced the belief that that we must always act – do something – to “fix” most any “problem” which arises as society changes as near warp speed.
Refraining from action is not an option, as it would betray the limits of techne when applied to human action and society at large. The extent to which grand and intrusive governmental actions are immune to empirical evidence as to actual results, i.e. their extensive unintended consequences and near universal failure, serves to amplify the delusional nature of their undertaking. When conservatives point out such failures, we are stigmatized as “anti-progress” or haters of this or that group which may enjoy some temporary benefit at the expense of some other group. The effectiveness of the dismissal of conservatism can be found in the underlying belief in the unlimited power of human expertise to create the Utopia which is just around the next corner. Its arrival wants for only yielding a bit more liberty and spending a little more of someone else’s money. It is a very tired refrain, indeed.
Peter,
“In this present crisis, government is not the solution to our problem, government IS the problem. It isn’t so much that liberals are ignorant, it’s just that they know so much that isn’t so.”
Your old boss’s phrase was an effective retort to big government solutions. In a climate where the governments seems incapable of executing anything and its “experts” wrong about seemingly everything, the GOP would do well to use it again.
We always get stuck defending the status quo. We need more offense, more mockery, more élan vital. Happy warriors.
A journey of 1,000 miles begins with the first step. The leadership of the House seems incapable of taking it. Here’s an example. We all realize the budget process is ineffective. Bowing to practical politics, they eventually pass a gargantuan continuing resolution. Why not be creative? Give the President everything he wants, except sugar subsidies. I would love to see The Democrats threaten a presidential veto over sugar subsidies. Any opportunity to throw “the people over the powerful” back in their faces should not be missed.