There is one big problem with conservatism as practiced in America and the world over the past 60 years: it has always been playing defense, always defending the status quo against the attacks of radicals. As conservative stalwart Bill Buckley put it:
“A conservative is someone who stands athwart history, yelling Stop, at a time when no one is much inclined to do so, or to have much patience with those who so urge it.”
There is one significant problem with always playing defense: eventually you will lose, as the attacks of your opponents will wear you down like waves wear down solid rock over time. It is one-way progression, with conservatives always on the losing end. As Timothy and David Gordon write in their book Rules for Retrogrades: “Generals know it; chess grandmasters know it; left-wing tacticians know it: to win a war, you need to be on offense.” Why? The Gordons declare:
“[A]ction, even when imprecisely directed or poorly executed, has the ability to do damage. Where a boxer throws an uppercut and lands it on his opponent, even if a more appropriate punch for the situation was a right cross, the uppercut still hurts and brings the boxer that much closer to a knockout win… When you’re on offense, you set the pace. If you remain on offense, you will (given sufficient time) accomplish your objectives.”
And since conservatives have been playing defense the past 60 years, we have been suffering defeat after defeat in the culture wars to offensive-minded leftists. We have lost on abortion, the expansion of out-of-wedlock births, the passage of no-fault divorce laws, homosexual marriage, homosexual adoption, and transgenderism, to name just a few defeats. Conservatives are on the mat with the referee at 8 now.
If we want to prevent further defeats, and even undue past losses, conservatives must finally go on offense. While it will not be easy, it is necessary. The Gordons state:
“It takes a dedicated effort to wrench the initiative away from an attacking opponent and put him on his heels, since humans don’t possess the instinct to meet aggression. When a boxer is on the receiving end of a flurry of punches, he has the instinctive reaction to step back, put his eyes down, raise his guard, and cover up. However, to succeed at the highest levels, fighters need to learn to counterpunch, seizing the initiative by force. It’s the same in culture war and politics…[W]e retrogrades [bold conservatives] need to take the initiative back; we need to make a concerted effort to go on offense.”
The Gordons then give some examples of how conservatives can seize the initiative and go on offense. For example, in regard to the 2nd Amendment right to bear arms, they write:
“After the next mass shooting, don’t passively defend against the leftist media’s mechanical, choreographed calls for ‘common-sense gun legislation’ by pointing out that the proposed laws would do little to curb violence. Instead, put leftists on their heels by organizing a coordinated media blitz wherein commentators are instructed to hammer home the point that crime rates are comparatively lower in regions where gun-ownership is higher. Go on the offense by challenging network hosts with questions like ‘Why are you against gun ownership when all the data suggests that it deters mass shootings?’ and ‘Why do you promote feminism and single-motherhood when you know that the overwhelming majority of mass-shootings are carried out by bitter fatherless men?’ If we want to end mass-shootings, we should encourage more people to carry firearm so that they can defend themselves. Organize a drive to subsidize guns for citizens in dangerous neighborhoods.”
Likewise with abortion. Rather than passively responding to pro-abortion arguments with the weak “I want to help women by showing them that choosing life is always the best option,” conservatives need to go boldly on the offensive:
“Instead, ask the smug leftist why he’s fine with hurting girls in utero by allowing their mothers to have them dismembered and sucked from the womb, or boiled alive in saline solution. Don’t let the radicals take up the mantle of being ‘pro-woman”; show how leftists hate women as demonstrated by their indifference toward millions of baby girls being slaughtered by mothers who are literal infanticidists.”
To have any chance of winning the culture wars in America and the rest of the world, authors Timothy and David Gordon in their book Rules for Retrogrades argue that conservatives must go on the offensive. Indeed, the first rule in their book is always be on offense. To continue to rely on our strategy of passively and weakly playing defense will merely continue our string of defeats over the past 60 years. As the Gordons declare:
“If we want to win the culture wars, we have to craft the narrative ourselves—to content ourselves with passively responding to the left’s cherry-picked and farcical narrative is suicidal. Train yourself to attack, work up your courage, and seize the day.”
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