I’m just as disappointed as the next conservative about our country being taken in by a silver-tongued socialist. Class envy and white guilt ruled the day on Nov 4. I don’t want to hear anything about racism holding anyone back anymore.
But conservatives need to snap out of any anger or depression they might have and get to work. An Obama presidency and unified Democratic government is a golden opportunity to rededicate ourselves to the conservative cause. Probably a very painful one, but an opportunity nonetheless. This is our chance to communicate what real conservatism is, the movement that the Republican Party largely betrayed over the past 8 years for a variety of reasons.
How can we do it? Over the past year or so, I’ve come to realize that these elections and campaigns come and go, and much of the outcome is already predetermined by the political mood or culture of the country. It is up to us conservatives not only to change the mood and make the pendulum swing back but also to start now in laying the groundwork for cultural renewal. The American people may have regular mood swings as one party or another eventually abuses its power, but beyond these oscillations is the larger context of political culture. We must shape American culture in a more conservative direction.
How can we shape culture? The best answer is to ask how the Left has hijacked American culture over the last century or so. The Left took over the media, academia, and the arts & entertainment spheres of American life. These are the three great molders of culture. We conservatives have Christian churches on our side (for the most part), but that alone is not going to cut it if we want to see a conservative political future. So we need more conservative journalists, professors, teachers, writers, film-makers, artists, etc. These are the crucial “second-hand dealers in ideas” that Friedrich Hayek wrote about in the Road to Serfdom.
Culture is king. It precedes poltics. Change the culture and the politics will follow naturally. This is what the Left has known so well all along, starting with the Marxists. It is time we took a page out of their playbook and gave our conservative philosophy some institutional teeth.
The Great Tradition 