A Note on Bridging the Gap Between Conservative Theory and Practice

By: Jake (Diary) May 31st, 2013

This post arose out of some thoughts I had after seeing Erick’s “Go Big or Go Home” post. If you haven’t read it yet, please do

Barry Goldwater’s The Conscience of a Conservative holds the distinction of being one of the few books I keep within easy reach of me in my apartment (the Bible being another one). Reading over Erick’s post reminded me of another part of his book, this time from the Foreword. I think it’s almost as prescient as what Erick said:

I blame conservatives–ourselves–myself. Our failure, as one Conservative writer has put it, is the failure of the Conservative demonstration. Though we Conservatives are deeply persuaded that our society is ailing, and know that Conservatism holds the key to national salvation–and feel sure the country agrees with us–we seem unable to demonstrate the practical relevance of Conservative principles to the needs of the day. We sit by impotently while Congress seeks to improvise solutions to problems that are not the real problems facing the country, while the government attempts to assuage imagined concerns and ignores the real concerns and real needs of the people.

Perhaps we suffer from an over-sensitivity to the judgments of those who rule the mass communications media. We are daily consigned by “enlightened” commentators to political oblivion: Conservatism, we are told, is out-of-date....To Read More....

My Take - The answer is simple.  In order to be a real leader it requires being willing to be unpopular for long periods of time.  In short....it takes guts.  There is another component to this also.  The left hates....everything.  They even hate each other.  The right just wants to be left alone and is willing to let others alone.  The left demands everyone adopt their views or else.  The right is willing to adopt any views on an individual basis and is willing to allow others to do the same provided they don't impact others negatively.  So it is easy for the left to be unpopular since they are constantly and unendingly spiteful and angry, therefore they don't expect to be loved.  The right is shocked at not being loved, so that makes them fearful.  Heterodoxy isn't for the faint of heart and leadership isn't about popularity.  Politics is, but politics and leadership don't necessarily go hand in hand.