Over the years, the American political right has increasingly been put on the defensive. This quickened with the election of Donald Trump in 2016, which stirred the political landscape significantly.
In a non-Trump world, the trend would have continued anyway: urban areas have been shifting left and rural areas shifting right for the better part of 40 years. But Trump, love him or hate him, is divisive. The left already had a strong hold on culture circa 2016, and Trump was deemed so unacceptable that they leveraged that control to create an authoritarian culture.
What is an authoritarian culture? It’s one where dissent from the norm is not tolerated. One must believe (or at least espouse) the standard or face a risk of being ostracized. Espouse all the right Shibboleths to show that you are on the “good team” and not part of the “out-group”.
Shibboleth (noun) - any custom or tradition, usually a choice of phrasing or even a single word, that distinguishes one group of people from another.[5] Shibboleths have been used throughout history in many societies as passwords, simple ways of self-identification, signaling loyalty and affinity, maintaining traditional segregation, or protecting from real or perceived threats.
Here’s the Thing
It’s been almost seven years since Trump was elected. As I’ve written about before, I was (and am) no Trump fan. I went “left” after his election for about 6 months before I found out just how devoid of reason the modern left really was.
But what we’ve seen since then makes the days of 2017 look quaint. Let’s start with one basic premise: when a culture goes authoritarian and prevents internal dissent it can quickly go off a cliff.
That is exactly what the left has done. It is so far past the edge of the cliff that we face a moral imperative to recapture the culture. In doing so, standing up requires facing risk of losing friends, family, and career prospects. But if we do not do so then we face a very real risk of systemic collapse.
In a nutshell, that is why I am unapologetically right. I will be supporting the Republican nominee in 2024 because this country cannot withstand 4 more years of leftist rule. And that’s not just me: 66% of Americans believe a Biden re-election would be a disaster or a setback according to a CNN poll:
My only question is this: what is wrong with the other 34%?
I am speaking up about this because the cultural stranglehold of the left must be broken. Culture is distributed and so this post may accomplish little by itself, but if I can convince just one other person to publicly question or abandon “the narrative” then that will be a win.
Trust me, I have plenty of blistering criticism for today’s Republican Party. Many of them belong in jail cells right next to their Democratic counterparts. But today’s system requires that we pick a side and work within it to evolve it. The right still values free speech and so there is a hope of change there not present on the modern left.
So with that said, let’s lay out a positive vision for what being “right” should be.
The Basics
For far too long, the left has twisted words and twisted reality with the help of the media. So we need to start at a fundamental level:
There is no “my truth” or “your truth”, there is just “the truth” even if it is hard to uncover at times.
Free speech is not just a pesky law, or even a constitutional right. It is the foundational principle of this country and must hold primacy in culture as well as in law.
All humans deserve equal rights under the law and should be treated with decency.
Defended Borders and Law & Order are required to have a nation. Without both you have nothing.
Still, America is a nation of immigrants and we should strive to continue that reality by enabling more legal immigration as we reduce illegal immigration.
Men can’t become women and women can’t become men.
For the past 240 years, the U.S. Government has largely exacerbated problems rather than solve them as it has grown. This is still true today and will likely still be true 100 years from now.
Economic growth is an engine that makes life better for more people. After the basic essentials are met, this is the most important thing and generally requires that the government get out of the way.
A basic safety net should be present to try to prevent anyone from the worst outcomes. Life on the safety net should not be comfortable, but it should be livable.
The Covid era came with terrifying infringements on personal and medical freedoms that we must ensure can never happen again.
We cannot always be the world’s policemen. We must harken back to Teddy Roosevelt’s “speak softly and carry a big stick” philosophy and avoid conflict unless absolutely necessary.
Healthy culture is important, and we must fight in cultural terms the Marxist leftists that have overrun our educational system and brainwashed many of America’s youth.
The Imperative
I’ve spoken to enough people that I know the above statements are all agreeable to at least 60-70% of the population and quite likely up to 80% or 90%. We should not assume that makes these values correct, but it is a good starting point to base a national party on that can adapt and evolve if we see other ideas work well elsewhere.
That said, there’s this: our government (and leftist culture) today do not act on any of these. Indeed, they act in open defiance to many of them.
I’m not going to lie: that should enrage you. That should drive you to stand up, loudly and proudly, for these principles. Vote each and every one of the nincompoops in Washington out (Democrat and Republican alike) until they actually represent the will and interests of the American People.
Humans have a strong bias toward agreeableness. Dissent is inherently uncomfortable. But I hope I am clear: if we do not defend these inherent principles now, then we face losing all of them.
And the uncomfortable fact is this: we can’t just defend them at this point. The alignment between leftists, the bureaucracy, and their mouthpieces in the media has captured far too much terrain. It is not enough to stop retreating, we must go on the (peaceful) offensive.
This peaceful offensive would be one of fifth generation warfare: largely fought with words and memetics. We must flood the internet with this culture and, yes, vocally combat those antithetical to it. Always treat people with decency (principle #3) but stand for truth (#1) and never be afraid of speaking for it (#2).
What Comes Next
Of course, the devil is often in the details. There are clear policy suggestions that follow from these principles that would be significantly more controversial than the principle itself.
To be sure, we will discuss those, but they have to be a story for another time. Policy fights are good and productive as long as we have a common moral framework. I would propose sharp cuts to the federal budget based on some of the points above. Reasonable people could disagree. And that’s fine.
The most important thing right now is to build a coalition around these principles that I know a supermajority of Americans still hold. We must unite and fight for these principles. If we do not, then they will assuredly degrade away in the face of modern madness.
So please, join me in being unapologetically right! Stop backing down, start speaking up, and do it now before it is too late.