Why conservatives lost part 7: Political parties don’t change anything, protest movements do
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Obsessing about recreating the Reagan Revolution to them is no different than finding the next Coolidge. To them, each is a figure/legend from a bygone era — a completely different century, in fact. That is if they know of them at all.
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Thus, year after year, decade after decade, we have the same factional arguments between the “Establishment” and the grassroots, between moderates and conservatives, and between principles and pragmatism. The song remains the same; only the names change. Meanwhile, our adversaries on the Left are successfully completing their long march through the institutions. Their generational victory is almost complete now. We are left with nary a public institution still conserving the traditions, values, and ideals that made America Exceptional in the first place.
But we’re still having all the same arguments within and about the GOP that those who swept into power with Reagan were having going on five decades ago.
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Before They Were Reform Movements They Were Protest Movements
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This same pattern repeats itself throughout our history. Just look at arguably the most successful reform movements in the history of Western Civilization — the dawn of the Christian Church, the Protestant Reformation, and the founding of America.
One of the major factors that moved Rome towards acceptance and then embracing of Christianity was the Christians’ willingness to protest injustice by dying for their cause. According to tradition, the Bishop of Rome, St. Peter himself, is said to have demanded to be crucified upside-down, because he wasn’t worthy of following in Christ’s footsteps. Scores of nameless Christians willingly went to their deaths in the arena as well in protest of Roman barbarism — choosing death over denouncing their faith in Christ. Rome would go on to become a central hub of Christianity, and it remains so to this day.
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Finally, before there was a Declaration of Independence, there was a Boston Tea Party and other acts of civil disobedience in defiance of British tyranny.
See, protest movements confront the status quo, while also making human nature that prefers conflict avoidance uncomfortable. Protest movements force us to see things as they really are, not as we would prefer them to be. They either expose for all to see the injustice being protested or the injustices being promoted by those doing the protesting. Either way, cultures are never the same.
We, unfortunately, are not a protest movement. We are a partisan one. And a partisan movement that is hemorrhaging influence within the Republican Party — our chosen partisan vehicle — as we speak. If we want to win the future, we must overcome our stigma against being a protest movement. A protest movement doesn’t have to include sophomoric or thuggish tactics. Quite the contrary, the most long-term successful ones usually don’t.
When the Left threw feces and tampons at pro-life Texas legislators a few years ago while chanting “hail Satan,” they didn’t win anybody over to their side but rather drove people away. And their proxy, Wendy Davis, was humiliated in the gubernatorial election. On the other hand, whether you agree with him or not (and I don’t), 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick has brought more sympathy to the Black Lives Matter cause by simply taking a knee during the national anthem, then all the nights they razed Ferguson combined.
We need more leaders like Ben Shapiro, willing to confront the status quo on their own turf, unwilling to accept the Left’s flawed premises, and then capable of confronting progressivism forcefully and boldly without becoming just like its seedier elements.
First you win the argument. Then you win the vote. And protest movements win arguments; political parties don’t.
- Discussion
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The conclusion to my series looking at why conservatives lost the era may rattle some cages. For @CR https://t.co/Pbg56R6wZH
— Steve Deace (@SteveDeaceShow) September 8, 2016
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