Thread by @Doc_0

This "Jeremiah 29 Conservative" idea of local activism is laudable in and of itself, but dangerously close to what I call "passive conservatism" as a national strategy.

theresurgent.com/2019/03/01/con…

The idea is that some conservatives are fed up with national politics so they're going to focus on local elections and civic activism. Which is great on its own merits - everyone should work to improve their community and winning local elections develops political talent.

But it's an absolute pipe dream to think that strategy will prove effective against a totalitarian Left on the march. Withdrawing from the national political battlefield cedes it to the Left. Local elections won't mean a damn if they dominate national races for a few cycles.

"Passive conservatism" is all about focusing on theory and philosophy while the Left kicks the stuffing out of you in the grubby real-world political battles you disdain in favor of celebrating your uncompromised principles.

The Left's principle is POWER and doing everything it takes to get it. If you're not ready to fight them and do what it takes to win some battles, all your white-paper rhapsodies will mean nothing in the end.

The conservative intelligentsia will trade finely-crafted essays like kids swapping Pokemon cards, but it won't have any effect on the actual lives of Americans who never even get to read the essays, because the Left dominates them completely and ruthlessly.

There's nothing finely crafted about the Left's ideas - they're brutish, thuggish, and utterly obtuse. But their top priority is gaining the power they need to ENFORCE those ideas. They don't waste energy on persuading dissenters or setting good examples. They compel obedience.

So if your strategy begins with "First, we withdraw from national politics because they're ugly," your diagnosis is correct but your plan is futile. You'll get a few years to build your local conservative community sand castles, and then the Left will kick them into your faces.

I WISH we lived in a nation where local communities held what little power the sovereign people must give up, to have an orderly society, and we could decide where we want to live according to our values. I WISH we settled the great political debates with our feet.

But we don't, and it's dangerous folly to pretend otherwise. We're in a desperate battle to preserve the last shreds of individual sovereignty from centralized collectivist power. We'll spend the next few years fighting to keep Lefty from nationalizing huge chunks of the economy.

Conservatives cannot sit that fight out by deciding national politics are beneath them. You won't be ALLOWED to build fine little conservative communities and politely hold them up as examples of what life according to conservative ideals could be like.

The same Left that is currently ordering you to stop referring to two human sexes will use federal power and online vigilante action to smash your Jeremiah 29 strategy to pieces the moment it shows any sign of WORKING. The better it works, the harder they'll hit you.

Your only hope is to stop them from grabbing the power they need to make resistance to their wretched ideology futile. If you're not in the national political game, you will lose. There are no conscientious objectors in this war, no neutral havens. /end