By Scott Tibbs, June 7, 2017
The conservative movement is dying on the vine. Conservatism is dying not because Leftists are gaining ground culturally or politically. In fact, Republicans have gained a massive amount of political territory between 2010, 2014 and 2016. But Conservatism is not the same as the success of the Republican Party.
No, conservatism is dying because a huge swath of the conservative movement has abandoned principles, integrity and sound arguments in search of leaders who will "fight the Left." Worse yet, we are thrilled by and elevate people to leadership not even because they take the fight to the Left, but because they anger and provoke the Left. As an example, see Milo Yiannopoulos. It has even gotten to the point that conservatives are praising President Trump for successfully "trolling" Leftists into fits of sputtering rage.
Folks, this is not leadership and this does not advance our values.
Obviously, Leftists are going to be angry at us. But when they are angry, they should be angry for a reason. Someone will be angry with me if I slap him across the face, but that does not advance conservative ideas or get conservative policy passed and signed into law. (It will, however, cause me to get a well-deserved beating.) If someone is angry with me because I advocate for the unborn, engage in reasonable criticism of a Leftist public figure or argue against bad public policy, then I have actually accomplished something.
We have to stop treating politics like it is a war between two street gangs. "Red" voters and "Blue" voters should not see themselves as Bloods and Crips, with Republicans satisfied simply because the Bloods score more damage on the Crips than we take. We have to re-focus ourselves on principles, integrity, character, sound argumentation and good public policy. The future of our nation is at stake.
