Conservatives are a failure

[pc_76]

Conservatives have fallen asleep at the wheel for the last decades while the left walked into all the institutions (including the church and military) and now today the left and postmodernism is pervasive everywhere and it seems too far gone, and conservatives and Christians have to tolerate it. Now it's even reaching into many areas that were previously conservative.

 

[ecumeni]

It is not all our fault. Sin is more enticing as a propaganda tool for the short term.

 

[iluvatar5150]

Conservatives have fallen asleep at the wheel for the last decades while the left walked into all the institutions (including the church and military) and now today the left and postmodernism is pervasive everywhere and it seems too far gone, and conservatives and Christians have to tolerate it. Now it's even reaching into many areas that were previously conservative.

It's not that they were asleep at the wheel. It's that the strain(s) of conservatism that have risen in popularity over the last couple decades are the strains that have long been reactionary and isolationist. Withdrawing from mainstream cultural institutions like academia, media, and the arts (and setting up their own parallel institutions) has been a hallmark of populist conservatism for over 100 years. The left didn't just "walk into" them - the left was always there. The right ran away from them, often pointing them them as some sort of enemy. You can't spend decades talking about how universities and public schools and hollywood and the mainstream media are terrible and ought to be torn down while still expecting to retain a viable influence within them.

 

[Ophiolite]

and conservatives and Christians have to tolerate it.

An interesting equivocation. There are plenty of conservatives who aren't Christian and plenty of Christians who aren't conservative.
Just an FYI.

 

[Chesterton]

Conservatives have fallen asleep at the wheel for the last decades while the left walked into all the institutions (including the church and military) and now today the left and postmodernism is pervasive everywhere and it seems too far gone, and conservatives and Christians have to tolerate it. Now it's even reaching into many areas that were previously conservative.

Yes part of it may be being asleep in the past as to how bad things could really get, but there's another thing - the idea of "fighting dirty". The conservative mind is by its very nature opposed to cheating and fighting dirty, whereas the Leftist mind is all about that, and really about nothing else. If you're facing a guy in a street fight and you're going to follow some rules, and he's not going to follow any rules, you're probably going to lose. It's a tough conundrum for conservatism.

 

[NxNW]

The conservative mind is by its very nature opposed to cheating and fighting dirty, whereas the Leftist mind is all about that, and really about nothing else.

Hard to argue with a reasonable well-documented argument like that.

 

[rambot]

Conservatives have fallen asleep at the wheel for the last decades while the left walked into all the institutions (including the church and military) and now today the left and postmodernism is pervasive everywhere and it seems too far gone, and conservatives and Christians have to tolerate it. Now it's even reaching into many areas that were previously conservative.

It IS a lot easier to blame our problems on others than to sit and reflect, isn't it?

 

[peaceful-forest]

A lot of the Conservative politicians belong to the Uni Party.

 

[FireDragon76]

Conservatives have fallen asleep at the wheel for the last decades while the left walked into all the institutions (including the church and military) and now today the left and postmodernism is pervasive everywhere and it seems too far gone, and conservatives and Christians have to tolerate it. Now it's even reaching into many areas that were previously conservative.

Postmodernism isn't a political philosophy. In fact it's deeply skeptical of politics.

 

[FireDragon76]

It's not that they were asleep at the wheel. It's that the strain(s) of conservatism that have risen in popularity over the last couple decades are the strains that have long been reactionary and isolationist. Withdrawing from mainstream cultural institutions like academia, media, and the arts (and setting up their own parallel institutions) has been a hallmark of populist conservatism for over 100 years. The left didn't just "walk into" them - the left was always there. The right ran away from them, often pointing them them as some sort of enemy. You can't spend decades talking about how universities and public schools and hollywood and the mainstream media are terrible and ought to be torn down while still expecting to retain a viable influence within them.

Exactly. Populist and Fundamentalist reactionaries had a resurgence in the 1970's, but it was only after decades of isolationism. And now, the dominant culture is again tired of them. I have said before this is basically the Fundamentalist-Modernist Controversy 2.0.

I suspect after the inevitable defeat after the last of the Boomers die off, Populists and Evangelicals will scurry back to their sawdust floored tents and Bible colleges. But there's going to be a huge mess in their wake.

 

[USincognito]

Yes part of it may be being asleep in the past as to how bad things could really get, but there's another thing - the idea of "fighting dirty". The conservative mind is by its very nature opposed to cheating and fighting dirty, whereas the Leftist mind is all about that, and really about nothing else. If you're facing a guy in a street fight and you're going to follow some rules, and he's not going to follow any rules, you're probably going to lose. It's a tough conundrum for conservatism.

You mean like calling people pedophiles or communists when they're neither?
You mean like creating cartoons and memes mocking an 82 year old man almost being killed with a hammer and lying that it was a gay lovers tryst?
You mean like claiming 9 months was way to close to an election for a President to get a SCOTUS Justice confirmed, but that with 6 weeks one WOULD be confirmed?

 

[FireDragon76]

You mean like calling people pedophiles or communists when they're neither?
You mean like creating cartoons and memes mocking an 82 year old man almost being killed with a hammer and lying that it was a gay lovers tryst?
You mean like claiming 9 months was way to close to an election for a President to get a SCOTUS Justice confirmed, but that with 6 weeks one WOULD be confirmed?

Principled Burkean conservativism hasn't really ever existed in the US. Mostly what's existed are plutocratic oligarchs and their cronies manipulating democracy through propaganda and legal instrumentalism to get what they want out of the process, at the expense of the common good. That's why it's nauseating to see people hide behind religious platitudes of morality defending such a kleptocratic system. It demonstrates neither morals nor reason.

 

[jacks]

Politics is like a pendulum. It swings too far one way and begins to swing back. It's interesting to see that the "boomers" one of the most active and radical groups in US history, now being seen as the "old stogies" keeping progress from marching on.

 

[Soul_Tsunami]

In these last days, the war continues against powers and principalities. No one is immune. You're either for God or Against, there is no in-between. This is not just a conservative issue.

 

[pc_76]

What war, and what is the war fighting for?

 

[jacks]

What war, and what is the war fighting for?

I think he was referencing Ephesians 6:12.

For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.

 

[Soul_Tsunami]

That's correct!

 

[Fantine]

Hard to argue with a reasonable well-documented argument like that.

Speak for yourself. Recent history points to a directly opposite conclusion.

 

[NxNW]

Speak for yourself. Recent history points to a directly opposite conclusion.

Regrettably, there isn't a sarcasm font.

 

[jacks]

Regrettably, there isn't a sarcasm font.

Actually there is a sarcasm emoji. Rat's it won't print here... It looks like an upside down smiley face. HERE
(Until I looked it up, I didn't know what it meant., though it would be handy.)