Why Conservatism Failed (Conservative Inc. Tells All)

Luis Miguel wrote the following blog:

Why Conservatism Failed

Here are my thoughts in tandem with the remarks that he wrote late last year.

Honest, patriotic, conservative Americans who only read the headline of this article without examining its content may think that I’m some liberal celebrating the left’s major wins in culture, society, and politics over the last 100+ years.

Far to the contrary, anyone who follows this blog and my social media accounts knows how staunchly of the right I am. That’s why I’m being so blunt: I want to see our side win. And if we want that to happen, we need to be honest with ourselves about why the left has beaten us time and time again, to the point where they now control government, the media, the schools, academia, and virtually every other aspect of society.

This point of "I want my side to win" speaks volumes about the so-called Conservative movement over the last thirty years, at least since the Regan Administration. Conservatives have not really been interested winning. They have wanted to coast on Reagan's victories, and then do no more. Just standing their ground has been their main stance--and that is not working.

Because of the vast nature of this subject, I won’t attempt to cover every factor in conservatism’s defeat in this post. I’ll likely revisit this question in future articles. So consider this Part I of “Why Conservatism Failed.”

Conservatism is Dead

The first thing you need to understand is that conservatism is effectively dead. When I say this, realize that “conservatism” is not the same thing as “the right.” The principles that we collectively tend to consider the political right—Christianity, family, personal responsibility, limited government, national sovereignty, constitutionalism, a dedication to our English-speaking, Anglo-American heritage —exist independently of the modern conservative movement.

This distinction may be helpful, and may be confusing at the same time. Talking about "The Right" and "conservatism" as synonymous is not the problem, and it's not going to help with the solutions needed. Those institutions, those media brands that are talking a good talk, but not walking a good walk: those entities should be the targets of our ire.

Conservatism, as in the brand of “Conservative, Inc.” found at places like National Review and The Weekly Standard, is largely a 20th Century phenomenon. The movement, led by men like William F. Buckley, Jr., Bill Kristol, and Jonah Goldberg, often landed book deals and mainstream media gigs for its thought leaders, but ultimately accomplished little of substance.

Hence, why I say conservatism is dead—because at this point, there is nothing left to conserve.

Atheism, feminism, homosexuality, transgenderism are all regularly taught in public school classrooms—regardless of which party is in power.

Conservatism as a movement needs real thought leaders who will put their thoughts into action. This problem among Christians and conservatives alike is actually not that new a problem. This was an issue even in the late 1940s, when Douglas Hyde informed his audiences that Communists were gaining considerable ground despite their relatively small numbers because they were not just committed to their cause, but they want out of their way to infiltrate, educate, and recruit others to take up the communist fight.

Legal and illegal immigration continue forward unchecked in ever-greater numbers, resulting in a demographic transformation of our country away from its English-Speaking, Anglo-American heritage—regardless of which party is in power.

Legal immigration has not met with assimilation, and that results in invasion. No question about that. Big Business has been propping up Conservative Inc. to pay lip service to real immigration reform (reduction of numbers, promotion of the American culture and character)

The scope and size of the federal government, particularly the executive branch, continues to grow to despotic proportions—regardless of which party is in power.

Our country continues to engage in pointless wars, cede authority to unelected international bodies, and rack up the national debt to mind-blowing levels—regardless of which party is in power.

Conservatism could not even conserve the women’s restroom.

The problem is not a label or an ideology. The problem is that the people carrying the mantle, or so they had claimed for years ... didn't carry it.

I recall what William F. Buckley had said about conservatism, that it was a movement in which man would stand up and shout "Stop" or put up a "Stop Sign" to the Leftist juggernaut assaulting the country through the universities and the other institutions and icons in the culture.

How Conservatism Died

Conservatism is dead. It failed. And it failed epically.

Why? Because it was always intended to fail.

Its leaders were and are false prophets. Buckley was a Skull and Bones internationalist serving the CIA. Kristol, his father, and the neocons are Trotskyist world revolutionaries.

This is where Luis gets into conspiracy theories, and in my view, they don't provide real insight on what to do about many of the problems.

The truth is that Bill Kristol and George Herbert Walker Bush were globalists, they were social liberals. Another neo-conservative, Charles Krauthammer, admitted that plainly in a number of the articles he had written. I later learned that Krauthammer was in favor of gun control as well as single-payer healthcare. These are not truly conservative positions at all.

Here’s how the game was played:

The establishment insiders who control both major American political parties want two things:

1.      The transformation of America into a non-Christian socialist state.

2.      The creation of world government, or a global new world order.

So what did they do? They captured the liberal and progressive movements, along with the Democratic party, to overtly advance both planks of their agenda.

Then, they backed the conservative movement, along with much of the Republican party, to serve as controlled opposition.

This matter of controlled opposition is a serious concern, and worth investigating further. Indeed, corporate interests were indeed pulling the strings in both parties, especially on issues like immigration.

The Republicans and media conservatives always claimed to oppose the left on plank #1 above, the transformation of America into a non-Christian socialist state. But in every cultural and political battle, every time it really counted, they were more concerned with being gentlemen and “losing with dignity” than putting up the fight necessary to actually win.

Yes. No one can doubt this. John McCain, Mitt Romney and others were never interested in really fighting. The Heritage Foundation and many other conservative groups have not really been interested in winning these political fights. They want to just get by, give the impression that they care enough to stand up to the current issue that needs rebuffing, and the quietly give up and move on to the next issue.

Fortunately, a greater number of grassroots groups are rising and fighting for the cultural values and norms that more Americans care about. The Pro-Life movement has become militant in its pressure to protect life at every stage of pregnancy. Their efforts have become so pronounced, that President Donald Trump is the first President to speak at the March for Life procession, which has been rallying in Washington DC every year for a number of years.

So the left would score another victory. Then another, each time moving government just a little closer to full socialism, moving the culture just a bit closer to anti-Christian, secular humanism.

And every time the left gained another win, conservatives would refuse to try to take that ground back. After all, if they’re all about “conserving,” that means they have to “conserve” the new liberal order, right?

Standing your ground doesn't mean much when the ground keeps shifting under your feet.

So they never dared touch the left’s victories. “You guys created a new unconstitutional government agency? Oh, we just have to accept it. What’s done is done. Oh, you’ve legalized gay marriage? Oh well. We can’t do anything about it now!”

So while conservatives were purposefully losing to the left on #1, they were actively working alongside them on #2—the creation of world government, or a new world order.

Notice that Democrats and Republicans always work toward the same foreign policy objectives—having our military spread out all over the world (except on our own border), meddling in other countries, sending our troops to die in pointless wars. In other words, the establishment of a worldwide empire—one run according to the rules of international bodies like the United Nations.

A number of lawmakers have pointed out that the two political parties agree too much. Recently deceased US Senator Tom Coburn complained about this issue, even when Congress was facing unprecedented gridlock during the Obama Administration. The government on both sides of the aisle still finds so much room for agreement.

At this point in the country's history, however, it has become all too clear that the two parties are fundamentally different in their views and values about the United States as a whole. The Democratic Party has embraced communism and anti-Americanism as its mainstays. They work every day to undermine the President and scuttle even the most basic laws and policy proposals to help the country, especially during this Coronavirus problem.

Meanwhile, back at home, the conservative talking heads and Republican insiders were selling all this to their constituents as “keeping America strong” and “making America a superpower.”

These false conservative prophets told well-intentioned, patriotic American voters that we were somehow made safer by having our service men die in a stone-age Middle Eastern country that has no means of attacking us. Yet these same “principled conservatives” scream to high heaven against a common-sense security measure like preventing migration from known terrorist strongholds.

At the same time, these same “true conservatives” made it their job to vehemently oppose genuine right-wing voices by smearing them out of the movement. Anyone who was actually willing to fight and win had to be denounced, as Buckley did to the likes of Pat Buchanan and the John Birch Society. As his magazine, National Review, did to the likes of Ann Coulter and John Derbyshire. As the #NeverTrumpers tried to do to Donald Trump.

Pat Buchanan has been quite vindicated in the last three years with the Trump Presidency. He has actually accomplished a number of the conservative policy platforms which previous Republican presidents and presidential candidates had often vouched and advocated for.

And so, step-by-step, the establishment insiders have brought their plan almost to full completion. And they couldn’t have done it without the help of their faithful friends, the American conservatives.

That is why I proclaim conservatism dead. And I say, good riddance! Conservatism was all about defense. And strictly playing defense is a lousy way to fight a war.

This last point is more than well-taken. Playing defense is not playing out well. Conservatives, or people on the right, need to play offense. The question becomes: when will Luis and others start going on the offense?

Where We Go From Here

The time to merely “conserve” is past. To be a conservative today would be to conserve socialism, globalism, and hedonistic humanism.

Today, we of the right are the revolutionaries. The name of our movement is irrelevant. We are Christians, patriots, nationalists, republicans (believers in Republicanism), freedom-lovers.

What’s in a name? At the end of the day, we’re fighters. Winning is all that matters.

And win we shall.

Yes! It's time to fight and win territory in the culture wars. It's time to push back on the corrupt politicians and rogue judges. It's time to stop accepting the slow acceleration of the statist status quo. I could not agree more with Luis' assessment.

I am not sure I agree with his theories about Bill Kristol as a krypto communist, however. In fact, that part of this discussion is quite irrelevant at this point. What I do agree with, however, is that so-called Conservative Inc. has been ruining the Conservative movement because they never had any interest in winning. The only thing that they wanted to do was write books, give speeches, and make big money.

This does not help us win the culture war. We need to fight back and win, not worry about civility or appearing civil. Do we want to make a difference, or just make headlines and money?