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The Democrats will do what it takes to gain victories, while their opponents appeal in vain to high principle. While the Democrats do have the support of our leading cultural and political institutions, they also enjoy another significant advantage: They fight relentlessly, and with a greater determination than their opponents.
Unlike our Republican gentlemen (Mike Pence and the GOP advocates of bipartisanship come to mind), Democrats are intent on increasing their power. In their determination to win they exemplify what I have called “the thumos factor,” a quality of boldness that even adversaries must grudgingly admire.
Republican cable TV pundits complain that the Democrats are all about power. Although this may be viewed as a moral defect, it is also an advantage when fighting the less warlike. When was the last time a Republican president combatted the deep state by replacing, where possible, Democratic administrators? This should be normal procedure for Republicans, as it has been for Democrats. I also have no idea why so many Senate Republicans—please listen, Lindsey Graham and Mitch McConnell!—have voted for highly partisan nominees for federal judgeships and cabinet posts put up by Democratic presidents. Why don’t Republicans in Congress treat their adversaries’ nominees exactly as Democrats treat Republican ones?
Moreover, it is incomprehensible to me that Republicans have not totally defunded NPR, which is the obvious mouthpiece of the Democratic Party and the deep state. Does anyone in his right mind believe the Democrats would not long ago have taken such an action against a Republican-occupied radio station that reached millions of listeners each week?
Nor should Republicans be shy about going after hostile public-sector unions, starting with Randi Weingarten’s United Federation of Teachers. Like Joe Biden’s handlers, Republicans should be punishing enemies as well as rewarding loyalists. Most definitely they should strip these enemies, as much as possible, of any influence over the government.
Exemplifying the attitudinal difference between the two parties, a “conservative” columnist writes in a self-described “conservative magazine” about the need for moderation. Instead of planning for “another American revival” after the woke explosion on the Left, conservatives “could work for social improvement in less dramatic ways.” “In a fallen world” in which “those efforts will lead to unexpected and frequently unwelcome outcomes,” we should be cautious in our political responses.
But we on the Right are not in a situation to plan for modest changes. The Left is playing for keeps, and victory will go to the more ruthless and more determined. In this case, survival itself may require a willingness to win.
Same message …
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Now juxtapose the Left’s pursuit and use of the sledgehammer of raw political power, with Conservatism, Inc. fiddling while the republic burns.
When I hear people thinking about investing in think tanks, I hear, “Let’s invest in more losing.” When the Heritage Foundation began in 1973, it ushered in the dawn of a new age of “conservative” think tanks. At that time the national debt was $458 billion. Over the course of the last 50 years, we’ve dumped billions of dollars into these organizations. The national debt is now $33 trillion. Far be it from me to suggest that we’ve been completely wrong about where we spend our dollars, but those think tanks aren’t conserving much of anything but their nice buildings and sinecures.
The Left’s nonprofit money funds investigative journalism, lawfare, voter registration, community organizing, and mobilization. It dumped more than $400 million into battleground states in 2020 alone to (very questionably) boost the blue vote in blue counties. They do all these things to build the mechanism of achieving power. Not the Right. No, we write white papers about what should be done instead of doing what it takes to achieve power.
Maybe we should start thinking about how we reposition ourselves, our strategy, our tactics, and our funding before it’s too late? Because, trust me, we’re not beating back the militant Left by swatting at them with white papers. And what we could be doing right now is educating people about “ballot out, ballot in” efforts for next year and registering people to vote instead of blowing $125 million a year on the Heritage Foundation.
We have just over 18 months before a truly monumental election for the direction of this country. Let’s stop partying like it’s 1984. Let’s stop squandering time and money. The fate of the republic is in the balance.
Yes, they state the obvious - “our survival may require a willingness to win.” - “MAY” require??
That’s quite an understatement…
And I don’t know if the Republic even “hangs in the balance” at this point - we may already be too far over the cliff to get it back.
Of course leftists fight hard - they’re criminals motivated by the attainment of totalitarian power.
And with only a few exceptions, Republicans are “controlled opposition”, through either corruption or because they cower from the threat of being labeled a Right wing “extremist” if they dare to suggest the elections are being rigged and stolen.
All good points.
However, the general drift of both articles is that Republicans must fight harder to win. They are frustratingly weak and slow. They talk a fine battle, but do not engage in it.