We’ve all heard the line about winning the “hearts and minds” of the population being the key to winning a war. Over the past several generations the Left has been busy doing exactly that. They’re organized and they’ve taken over virtually every societal institution that has the ability to influence hearts and minds—especially government run education at every level. They’ve also taken over far too much of the government and, when they have the ability, they use government money—your money—to fund themselves through myriad “community action” organizations. They’ve largely taken control over the permanent government bureaucracy, thanks to decades old court rulings that ban “religious” tests—or, in effect, common decency tests for employment. Then those who object are systematically weeded out.
In all this they’ve been immeasurably aided by the all too common libertarian trend of general American attitudes: Can’t we all just get along? Can’t you just leave me alone? It’s that attitude that thwarts effective organizing efforts before they even get started. It’s also the mindset that elects the type of GOPers that conservatives like to complain about—after all, we ultimately get the representatives who represent the majority of the electorate. There’s no getting around that. The typical lazily well intentioned American who is mentally flabby just don’t get it: That we’re up against a highly motivated and organized enemy that wants to put their boot on our neck. Yes, we’re largely at fault. As Pogo famously said:
Changing the hearts and minds of others presumes that we have actually have strongly understood convictions ourselves, that we’re able to articulate and explain, that make sense. In the absence of such heart and mind convictions, even lame brained, cultic ideologies such as we see, now, at every level of our society will gradually force sound thinking out of common circulation. This is what has enabled the pervasive internet censorship, and it also makes the general population susceptible to ginned up waves of hysteria.
This is why I periodically remind readers that we need to seriously convert ourselves. That’s also the theme of a lengthy article today at American Greatness:
Natural Law Liberalism—An Ideology for the Republican Party
Unless Republicans anchor their political value system in the absolute truth of inalienable individual rights granted by God the Creator, the Left will eventually win.
Most conservatives can agree with the author’s diagnosis:
… the Democratic Party over time has embraced an all-encompassing ideology that governs the way their politics and quest for power are shaped. All Democratic politicians and their pundits embrace at least some key aspects of this ideology. This fact is not readily apparent to everyone because Americans are not inclined to over-intellectualize politics. Most Americans view government and politics as a means of enacting the best common-sense policies to govern their daily lives.
...
… this is increasingly a losing proposition because they are fighting against a unified ideology bent on reshaping our constitution and imposing a totalitarian worldview. Democrats and the Left believe that the future is the collective and the collective is guided by an intellectual ruling class.
Some Republicans actually believe that having a fully formed ideology is counter-productive and can lead to evil.
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Leftist ideas and power continue to grow and adapt in the western democracies by the insidious take over of the media, educational system, and popular culture. Without having an ideological base to fall back on, Republican and conservatives will eventually be overwhelmed and destroyed.
However, most conservatives also balk at the only realistic solution. However, consider:
In the past, articulating and adhering to a unified Republican ideology was less important because Judeo-Christian values permeated American values and culture. This system silently and subconsciously provided a stable foundation that allowed day-to-day politics to focus on pragmatic solutions to social and economic problems. As late as the 1950s, even secular elites still maintained an adherence to many of these values, and they were reinforced within the educational system and in public life. Civics classes taught children about the benefits of our Constitutional system of government, its foundation in Judeo-Christian values and natural rights, and portrayed the Constitution and the founding fathers in a positive light. The existence of God was acknowledged in the public schools and popular culture. Therefore, arguing piecemeal for practical common sense solutions to policy matters was still a very effective approach.
The cultural revolution of the 1960s, however, caused a dramatic change in America’s shared beliefs. Belief in traditional hierarchies and social structures were systematically destroyed by an “anything goes” philosophy. More importantly, the Left started propagating the idea that the American system was actually founded to enforce “inequality” and support the “privileges” of “wealthy white men” at the expense of people of color and women. Judeo-Christian ethics and values were viewed as anachronistic and oppressive. These values would need to be destroyed to liberate previously oppressed groups.
But human beings are hard-wired with a need for meaning and purpose. Thus, the liberated baby boomer elites began searching for a new philosophical ideology that could give direction to their lives. Progressives recognized this need and began more intensely to propagate their Neo-Marxist ideology which claims that by following their precepts, “salvation” will be achieved by creating a utopia on earth.
The antidote to this utopian Marxist ideology in its current fuzzy Libertarian/Prog form must have clearly defined ideas serving as its backbone. The author proposes:
Occasionally you see bumper stickers that proclaim “God, Family, Country.” With the addition of the word “World” after “Country” this message can serve as the foundational hierarchy of the new natural law ideology.
While many secular Republican libertarians may balk at the inclusion of the concept of God at the top of the ideology’s hierarchy, the purpose is not to promote a state religion or even to force people to believe in a particular religious doctrine. Instead it is there to emphasize that humans are fallible, are prone to both good and evil, and should not assume that we have all the answers to the problems of the world.
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Many in the Republican Party may argue that this will just polarize the country further, ultimately leading to a break up of the country. This is a false narrative. Natural law liberalism rests on commonsense values that are still embedded within most Americans. If promoted correctly and continuously, there is no reason to believe that they cannot overcome the progressive leftist ideas which are actually foreign to the American experience. Time Is Running Out
The longer Republicans fail to act the more entrenched the Left’s progressive values and norms will become in society. It will become harder and harder to reverse the grasp of these ideas on the country as their political and cultural power will work to keep other ideas suppressed. The Democrats believe that leftist ideas represent the inevitable “progress of history” which to them represents an absolute incontrovertible truth. They have thus become evangelists for a globalist socialist future. Unless Republicans anchor their political value system in the absolute truth of inalienable individual rights granted by God the Creator they will simply fall into the trap of arguing about moral relativism and the Left will eventually win.
I encourage everyone to read the much longer exposition you’ll find at the link. If you have any better ideas than self conversion and grass roots activism, I’l like to know. The alternative is defeat. People who believe in nothing will fall for anything—unless they’re offered a real alternative that’s presented fearlessly.
I disagree with the idea of trying to reintroduce religious ideals into any political party. Historically speaking it's a loosing recipe for diaster and it's not going to be received well.
"...While many secular Republican libertarians may balk at the inclusion of the concept of God at the top of the ideology’s hierarchy, the purpose is not to promote a state religion or even to force people to believe in a particular religious doctrine..."
It isn't just libertarians that balk at that, the failure of that argument is to say that Judeo-Christianisum is the only place morals or values can be found... It isn't.
It's also to confuse the concept of Nature’s God with Judeo-Christianisum and throw Deism out the window.
The issues of the left and right are unfortunately the fault of each side themselves because they largely can't operate by their own moral code. As a collective tribes they are no less subject to the effects of Parkinson's Laws than that of any government.
IMHO The issue of morals and making the right decisions is not at all based on the inclusion of any of the many variations of a God. Must I believe in a higher power to be a good human being to make the right choices and decisions in my life? My choices, morals and values are based on my own personal accountability and I doubt any of you would particularly mind being my neighbor.
We are, or should be a country of laws governed by the secular ideology of law based on omnism. Else you just wade into the same paradox of who's belief exactly should we be following?... Ask any one of the various religions and they will undoubtedly say "MINE" and NONE can help or resist that. Just about everyone of them has at one point or another dominated a country, state of territory (including the US) and at no point in history has it resulted in the ushering of peace and prosperity, usually it's the absolute opposite. Our founders, who were made up of both Christian and Deism belief knew this.
Our issue today is the same age old issue that happens when societies flourish. Inevitably tribalism rears its ugly head and we need to have a good'ole fashion fight about it. I'll will defend your right to believe with my life, I will also defend the right not to believe in the same way. That's not a hard balance to find if you're honestly willing to fight about it and I am! Both sides however largely are not and that's where Pogo comes into play and there is where conservatives are very much their own enemies!
Eventually we'll get there and have a nice big fight about all of this and after we do we'll remember that no we can't "all just get along" and "your feeling are not my problem"... but that respectfully agreeing to disagree in each corner of our own sandbox is probably the better option.
The article has the polling on popularity of 50 Governors which is useful. The analysis is spin, sorry, who cares about Vermont? Vermont is an outlier and deep Blue, along with HI.
What I stood out to me to is Gov. Ducey and Kemp being low in popularity for Governors. My guess is their aiding and abetting the 2020 Fraud. Abbot is also low, probably due to his handling of Covid.
Note Morning Consult is the official partner of the NY Times, Politico, and Bloomberg so I am SURE there is a bit of bias in the polling. They believe there is no bias against Conservatives in the Media, and there is no such thing as a shy Trump Voter.
https://morningconsult.com/2021/11/18/phil-scott-approval-vermont-polling-senate-race/