The Twilight of Ideas

Keeping faith in a political realignment

I’m a Christian before all things. As a Christian, I know we are all sinners. As someone who knows we are all sinners, I am a conservative because I want as few sinners in charge of me as possible.

For a long time, the conservative movement embraced the idea that government should get out of the way. We should have a free marketplace of ideas. We should embrace negative liberties, i.e we can do things without government and reject the idea of positive liberties, i.e. we must have the government provide for us so we can have our best life now. Conservatism has been about building up individuals and families without government interference.

For a long time in the United States, both liberals and conservatives have largely embraced the idea of liberty, but have argued over the negative and positive aspects of liberty. The left has wanted a greater social safety net, while the right has wanted greater freedoms to both fail and succeed. The arguments we have had have largely been arguments with a shared vernacular and idiomatic expressions — we have been able to have arguments about how to take the next step forward as a nation with a common moral underpinning.

Now, however, it seems the very common and shared moral underpinnings have gone away. We are many people of many different moral underpinnings arguing not about how to take the next step forward, but about which direction we should go at all. We are in the middle of a political realignment.

A great many of my friends have decided to give up classical liberalism in large part because they believe it lacks any teeth or fight to stop a progressive cultural onslaught. Frankly, much of both the left and right now live in fear and loathing of the other side.

Combined with all of that, we are now in post-modernity. In post-modernity, doubts outweigh truth; there is no objective truth; reality is shaped by words; and devotion to a belief necessitates performance. Post-modernity is arguably incompatible with an American experiment that holds to self-evident, objective truths.

Thus we get boisterous performance on the left and the right. The left engages in protest, cancel culture, and demands for censorship. The right engages in protest, cancel culture, and demands for censorship. The left claims the nation is systemically racist and fundamentally flaws with unfalsifiable statements. The right, from conservative thinktanks funded by the free market successes of what conservatism conserved, demands to know what conservatism has conserved.

Everyone wants to move on, largely devoid of ideas or truth, driven by contempt for the other side.

On the right, some now have embraced a lot of liberal ideas conservatism long rejected. Union support is on the rise on the right, which will just drive up costs and make us more dependent on China in addition to helpfully providing progressives money. Some want support for some sort of Catholic authoritarianism that requires not just getting power and selling Protestants on the idea, but then holding power. In fact, a large segment of the right seems more and more desirous of getting back power and never letting it go again — in part because the left also seems inclined to not give back power.

An overarching issue for many of the conservatives who are rushing away from classical liberalism is the realization that much of the progressive left has taken advantage of that laissez-faire attitude and embedded within government, bureaucracy, and corporate America to now impose their values on others. A lot of conservatives now see classical liberalism as tacit surrender, which explains a lot of the angry reaction to the New York Times op-ed on states fighting back against critical race theory.

The left has, for a long time, used the system conservatives designed to advance progressivism even into the schools. There was bound to be a reaction to any group suggesting the right cannot stop this advance with the levers of a democratically elected government. If the right cannot stop the advance of an agenda that teaches children they are collectively responsible for racism by virtue of their skin color, then what purpose is there for the right?

Thus the right now needs ideas. I don’t know that I have a lot to offer on this front in this piece, but I have a few thoughts.

First, we should continue the conservative assault on the federal government. If the federal government is the provider and securer of all liberties, then whoever controls it controls all the power. One side is going to get that power and refuse to give it up. The best way forward on that front is the front the founders envisioned — spread the power out across the country. Make the states more powerful. Also, expand the number of members of the House of Representatives and elect members willing to be individually powerfully instead of subservient to leadership. Make each Representative the representative of a smaller population, thereby allowing more people the opportunity to have a personal connection and personal influence on their members.

Second, stop pouring so much money into conservative Washington think tanks and pour more money into setting up private schools freely accessible by the poor in urban areas. Conservatives are more worried about indoctrination than white papers. Help get children out of government schools and thereby undermine the case for government schools.

Third, end corporate welfare of all kinds and that includes tax, legislative, and regulatory perks that allow big corporations to protect themselves from the creative destruction of the marketplace.

Fourth, and relatedly, allow the pain of collapse and stop creating moral hazard. We are in particularly risky financial times because Congress has bailed out so many undeserving businesses and they think the bailouts will go on in perpetuity. Congress needs to allow financial institutions to collapse. The short term turmoil and pruning will lead long term to healtier markets.

Fifth, end the student loan market altogether to force colleges and universities to restruct, divest from endowments, and/or shutter. The student loan market has distorted the academic market and not just driven up costs, but created a new class of indentured servants called graduates.

Sixth, allow states to disagree, but disallow states to sanction one another for those disagreements.

Seventh, resist the urge to elect those who would impose from Washington a common good when, after all, history shows the elite and wealthy will be the ones who decide what that common good is and it will inevitably be godless and hedonistic even if wrapped in a veneer of moral preening. Instead, empower people at local levels to live in communities of interest and use government to prevent corporations and other governments from discriminating against or punishing those local communities that have opted for morally conservative living.

Thoughts for Christians in All of This

As the parties sort themselves out, all of us gravitate to a tribe. Those of us of faith need to remember our tribe is with Jesus, not Republicans or Democrats. A lot of people on the right are going to advocate methods, tactics, and positions that may gain you an America you love while costing you eternity. You’ll be bullied and harassed for rejecting those methods, tatics, and positions, but you must resist.

Don’t put your trust in men, particularly the proud and puffed up. We live in post-modern times and there will those who not just perform in public like a jackass, but expect of you some jackassery toward those who do not conform or fully embrace an idea or cause. You must first love your neighbor. You must show grace.

Frankly and truthfully, we are reaching a time when more and more true Christians are going to step out of party politics and maybe out of party altogether. One of the great dangers of a Republican Party that increasingly covets centralized power is that Christians know how this story ends. Things are going to get far worse before they get better. Be wary of giving power to any person or tribe such that it can then be turned on you by them or the other side.

A great many people are going to fall away from the church before the final day. It won’t just be atheist progressives, but a lot of people in church pews yesterday. Christianity is not compatible with our post-modern age because Christianity is a religion of objective truth. It will survive the age because it is true. But we must continue to make our yeses our yeses without feeling the need to perform or beclown ourselves to show our commitment to our God or our truth.

A lot of faithful people are going to get distracted from eternity in the coming years fighting short term battles they will ultimately lose against a godless world. Show them and everyone else a lot of grace. We are in an age of political realignment where a lot of people have bluster without ideas as they try conjuring new ideas for this realignment. Don’t make your friendships dependent on a tribe. You’re very soon going to realize you no longer see eye to eye politically with some long time friends and you’re to love your neighbor as yourself, which gets hard if your friendship is grounded only in shared political commonality.

Lastly, get offline. It is isolating and makes us more likely to develop friendships with those who look and think just like us. It hurts our witness, builds our anxieties, and makes us dive into the sin of worry.

Let not your heart be troubled. The God of all creation is on your side. You depend on no party or politician in the land through which you are passing when the King of Glory himself is leading you.

One Parting Thought

A great many people on the right are vying for power now. Here is what we Christians know to be true. The world is going to descend into a time of global persecution of the Christian. The world hates the things of God.

Many are going to come ask the Christian for his vote while also selling out the Christian’s values behind the scenes. There’ll be those who claim they will impose a Christian world view or use Christian values to advance the kingdom on the planet. But be cautious. God does not need a politician to advance the kingdom. He needs you.

Part of the angst of the present age is the spirtual collapse around us. It is causing people to find strong men and rally to causes and men who promise to protect us and our way of life. Many of them mean well. But none of them will succeed. They are not meant to. The world is meant to feel dominant until the last day when the world will lose and Christ will win.

So discern more deeply and stop trying to find political protection for spirtual warfare. Much of what we see on the right at this moment is well meaning souls trying to man political ramparts to fight spiritual battles. It will not work. Instead, seek the welfare of the community in which you live and pray for it, for there you will find your welfare. I do not call for any person to abdicate politics. Just remember, Christians must live and work and fight politics differently from the world. If you do it right, the world will see you as weak and meek. But God sees all and knows all and your worldly weakness is your eternal strength.

We do not wage war as the world does. The weapons we fight with have the power to demolish strongholds.  For our war is not against flesh and blood, but against the spiritual forces of evil.  It is God who arms me with strength. He is the God who avenges me…who saves me from my enemies.  Be strong and courageous. Do not be terrified or discouraged, for the Lord Your God will be with you wherever you go.  Do not be afraid of them for the Lord Your God himself will fight for you.  Seek the welfare of the city in which you are in exile and pray for it, for there you will find your welfare.  Let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up. The Lord is my strength, my rock, my fortress, my deliverer, my shield, my stronghold. No weapon forged against you will prosper and you will refute every tongue that accuses you — this is the heritage of the Lord’s servants. For the battle is the Lord’s.  Therefore, put on the full armor of God so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground. In all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loves us.  And we know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose for them.