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Why Have Hope?
While there’s a lot wrong with the nation right now, I remain hopeful that we will undo much of the recent damage and set the country on a better path. I think there are sound reasons to consider that a possibility, beginning with the increasingly visible failures of modern progressivism.
I’m not such an optimist that I believe in utopian solutions to our current problems. I don’t think that has ever been an option, and I think it is unrealistic to imagine that we’ll move the country to some place of enlightened liberty that it has never actually occupied. But I do think that we can move back and forth on the continuum of freedom and prosperity; that we’re largely free and prosperous today; and that we can increase both our freedom and our prosperity in the near future. I don’t think it will be easy. I do think we can do it.
I think we have our best chance of countering the enemies of liberty — the woke activists, the broken universities, the progressive institutions, the leftist bureaucracy — if we engage lots of normal Americans in the effort. By normal, I mean people who aren’t obsessed with politics and culture, but who would like to remain secure and free and who recognize absurdity when they see it. I think there are a great many such people, and that those people are our allies. We should encourage them to join other conservatives in becoming more stalwart supporters of conservative candidates and more outspoken critics of the left’s excesses.
In other words, I think we should strive to rally the troops.
To inspire enthusiasm, to motivate people to enter the fray, it helps to offer some realistic prospect of victory. That’s what I mean by hope: expressing optimism that we can oppose what sometimes seems to be a juggernaut of bad progressive ideas — and oppose it successfully.
There’s a reason that the left would like to prevent us from speaking critically about it. The left knows that it doesn’t win debates. The left knows that coverage has to be spun so that normal people don’t know what activists on the left say and do. That betrays a weakness, a weakness we on the right don’t have. We want to engage the left. We want to ask questions, challenge their assertions, expose their programs. We have the better history, the better track record, the better story. That’s our strength. That’s their weakness.
There are two very different visions of America in conflict here. It’s a serious conflict, with a lot at stake. A competent coach doesn’t go into the locker room at halftime and tell his team that they’re going to get the same drubbing in the second half than they did in the first. A competent commander doesn’t tell his men that they don’t have any hope of winning. A competent businessman doesn’t tell his staff that there’s no way they’re going to prosper because the competition is going to run rings around them. Leaders inspire confidence. They find a way to remain hopeful, and to encourage hope in others. Because without hope people stop trying, give up, go home, and don’t contribute.
Those of us who are engaged in the political and cultural debates are, whether we like it or not, leaders. We would do well to think about how we can inspire the relatively disengaged to join in and support the conservative side. We should think about how we can inspire hope.
Published in General
I reject the premise. Yes, I know I’m annoying that way. This isn’t second half college football where we’re down by a couple touchdowns. This is ideological war. And what do wartime leaders offer? Not hope, but sacrifice. “We shall defend our island [our country — our ideals], whatever the cost may be, we shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender.”
The implication being a lot of us are going to die — we’re going to have to make the ultimate sacrifice. This is the reason Christianity is indomitable: Christians are willing to die for the love of Christ (by which I also mean Truth — I’ll never submit to the same-sex “marriage” lie and you shouldn’t either). Americans have grown complacent and comfortable. Is there anything any of us are willing to die for anymore (apart from our military men and women)? Heck, we can’t even get conservatives to take the economic hit and rely on one income so that mom can raise their precious children, thereby keeping them out of public indoctrination day-camps, otherwise known as “schools.”
I’m with Michael Warren Davis on this. We’ve lost the culture war (which is the war for our civilization). Now what?
Don’t blow smoke up my butt with “rah, rah, we can do it team!!” I want real leadership telling me where I may sacrifice for the cause. It won’t be enough to send money to the RNC, that’s for sure.
I used to think that conservatives could argue their way to victory, since they have the better arguments. Those were the long ago days when it was thrilling to read National Review. Problem is, there is a large percentage of the electorate that doesn’t care about arguments, and it has gotten much larger over the last few decades because of immigration, legal and illegal. That was the reason 2016 was the “Flight 93” election. Something had to be done about immigration immediately, since if it wasn’t, nothing else mattered.
The situation has only gotten worse since then. Biden is waving across the border tens of thousands of migrants who don’t care about Thomas Sowell. It might very well be that the situation is beyond retrieval and secession of some variety is the only hope for preserving liberty, at least somewhere. In any case, if we are basing our hope on the fact that conservatives can beat leftists in debate, then we have no hope at all.
This reminds me of a comment – not my own – that I saved from a while back:
Yeah I’m with her.
Not that I’m saying it’s a good thing, but I think there’s a good possibility that most American citizens even of lower income etc, can still end up living rather well, and it will be the massive numbers of immigrants that will be at the bottom. Which isn’t a recipe for social stability or calm, but it’s not the same as having just lords and peasants, with ALL OF US being peasants.
Well, do you think the stores that have empty shelves is an accident, or a logical consequence of only the covid shutdowns? Or is it the result of decided, encumbering legislation.
Is the price and scarcity of meat reasonable and just the result of accidental medical misfortunes?
What I’m referring to is that if those things are temporary, and if there is a coming “permanent underclass,” it will consist mostly if not entirely of those the Dims want to bring in as voters to hand them election after election.
As often happens, Hank, I like what you’re saying. My struggle is with those people who haven’t been engaged. They probably fall into one of a few categories: (1) they aren’t interested; (2) they don’t believe they are empowered; (3) they hate politics and the ugliness; (4) and they don’t know who to believe anymore. Those are pretty big barriers. For #1, it’s hard to get people interested, since it all seems so messy right now. For #2, how do we convince people they have the power to make a difference. For #3, I can’t blame them. And for #4, I don’t even know sometimes who to believe!
I think that using moral or ethical arguments won’t matter. What I think may matter is to reach them where they are: do they have kids in school? Are they paying far too much at the grocery store? Are they worried about the border? And so on . . .
I think our appeal must be personalized by finding their issues, explain how we believe we got here (which may not be so easy, since Republicans have contributed), and what they can do to change the future. Even when people don’t trust the election system, we have to vote and keep working to expose the fraud while we do so.
My challenge will be to find people who haven’t yet taken sides . . . .
Good post!
There’s still a big obstacle to… quality thinking, or something. I had many neighbors in Phoenix, and still have some relatives, whose attitude is basically “Wow the Democrats have really messed things up! It’ll take a lot more Democrats to fix it!”
I think the miseducation wrought by the left on far larger numbers of citizens was far more harmful.
Yes. I think I see some of this. It makes one wonder how badly things need to be messed up before some realistic assessment occurs. This phenomenon has been there when trying to understand how people continued negative on Trump when what they had been convinced was happening just wasn’t there.
There will always be a number of leftists, how many is likely unknowable, who will always claim that the reason leftism failed is because they weren’t leftist ENOUGH.
I see that. When we get to be Leftist enough what is the methodology that will have been employed to get us there? My guess is unquestioning compliance as is expected with the vaccine mandate. Do these Leftists we are describing think unquestioned compliance is a good thing and that is where we should go?
But as the Soviets found that still leads to food lines etc. If anything, the more “perfect” they get their leftism, the worse things will be. But they will never acknowledge the actual cause of it.
Here is a passage from an article at American Greatness by Salena Zito about the Virginia House of Delegates election:
“By the time the next off-year election rolled around in 2019, the Republicans’ by-then flimsy 51-49 seat majority turned into a 45-55 deficit, putting Democrats in the catbird seat.
The race here in 2017 told us that college-educated, center-right suburban voters wanted nothing to do with anything associated with Trump’s comportment. For them, it had infected any attachment they felt for conservative policies.”
We see some of this here at Ricochet. It is really kind of amazing how shallow this is.
Well what do you expect of ape spawn? Politics (and much of religion) are about solidifying the bonds between groups. Trump simply isn’t one of the elite the way GWB was one of the elite. Politics are very rarely about the best policy.
Agreed. Start by moving away from Donald J. Trump. He is toxic. He won one election against the worst candidate in American history and lost one election to the third worst candidate in American history. He also lost the House and Senate. Until the GOP gets past Trump, expect more bad times. BET ON IT. The SMART money is on this. Believe me or continue to be a chump. Trump is a lifelong Democrat who cares nothing about anything but himself. If he runs in 2024 and loses in the primary, which is entirely possible, he will do all in his power to make sure the GOP nominee loses, which will be a tragedy for the U.S.A. China is hoping for this scenario. Believe me.
Theodoric, I think you are right but you don’t need to yell. We are all friends here. But how can we get the Max Ledoux types to vote for the next Republican?
Simple way to avoid Trump in 2024: Co-opt his issues, first and foremost immigration. This option was available in 2016. If any of the mainstream candidates had taken immigration seriously, they would have won the nomination. None did, even when it became clear that Trump might very well win the nomination on that issue alone. I’ll leave it as an exercise for the reader why none of the mainstream candidates took that obvious strategic option.
I hope 2024 isn’t a repeat of 2016: The Republican Party establishment refuses to take seriously the issues that drive many conservatives to look for an alternative, and instead vilifies voters when they take whatever alternative is at hand, even if he indulges in mean tweets.
I’ll save Drew the trouble:
“I was really, really okay with the mean tweets.”
I am an Atlanta sports fan. Why have hope indeed
The Atlanta 28 New England 3 T-Shirts are still popular up here in New England.
Thank you all for the interesting comments. I’ll respond to a few, without quoting.
To those who seem ready for a hot war in America: I think you’re jumping the gun quite a lot. I’m not ready to abandon the Constitutional framework we’ve been given. I think it’s unrealistic to think that very many people are. The call to arms is a radical call, whether radical from the left or the right. As long as we can all work harder to win elections and persuade people, we have no business talking about shedding blood.
So how about we “sacrifice” by going out and talking to people, making an effort to work within the system of laws we enjoy. Because imagining that we are going to have a revolution when most of us aren’t willing to seriously inconvenience ourselves by putting our time and treasure in service of conservative candidates is absurd. How about we speak up — using our real names, even — and encourage others to do the same, before we start talking about people dying en masse?
To those who are already and irresolutely hopeless: sorry to see you leave the fight. I hope you think it over and change your mind.
To those who think we have to abandon Trump: I think that’s as wrong as saying we have to go full-Trump. Trump brought some good things to the game, and attracted people who are our natural allies even if we rarely heard from them. We should embrace that. I will happily join with those who want to close the borders and get tough with China on trade, two conspicuous Trump positions. The GOP could do with a bit of what Victor Davis Hanson describes as “muscular conservatism,” a recognition that people who make things should be heard.
Regarding elections: 2020 was extraordinary in a couple of ways. First, the left took advantage of the Wuhan coronavirus to break a bunch of election rules. More importantly, the left’s lapdog media spent four years lying about the President and a year covering up for the candidate Brandon: I will be very surprised if they can pull that off with a less contentious Republican candidate than President Trump. (It’s my hope that President Trump does not run again, but instead gives his blessing to whoever runs instead. I think that gives us our best chance of victory. But I can never count on President Trump to do what I ask. I’ll vote for the Republican candidate in any case.)
Again, thanks everyone for a bunch of interesting comments.
Co-opt the issues. You mean like pledging to end 0bamacare?
I prefer a candidate who professes goals I agree with – like ending obamacare – and fails to achieve it, to a candidate who simply accepts obamacare as the new status quo and can’t conceive of doing anything to repeal it.
That sounds good, but when they had the opportunity in Trump’s first two years to end 0bamacare, they suddenly said they couldn’t do it.
In defense of Trump, McCain and lots of other Republican lacked te–, let’s call it intestinal fortitude.
Trump would have signed it, but McCain gave thumbs-down to the people who voted for him.
And what really annoys me about this, is that McCain was a moderate like Trump. He would have been fine with a some heavy wealth redistribution as long as it wasn’t dumb like ObamaCare. His vote against Trump’s appeal was all about vanity. As Ecclesiastes states, all is vanity and vexation of spirit,
At least in practice, Trump was far more conservative than McCain.