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A brief thread about this piece, making the case that conservatives should not believe all is lost on the cultural front. In fact, we've made great strides, even as the other side has its own obvious strengths /1: nationalreview.com/2019/06/agains…
If you go back to the beginning of the Reagan era, in 1981 the abortion rate was at its all-time high, and after years of the Warren Court it was an open question whether it was UNLAWFUL for a Christian student group to meet in empty public university classrooms. /2
In December 1981, SCOTUS decided Widmar v. Vincent, launching a run of free speech victories that opened colleges, high schools, and elementary schools to the Gospel. The abortion rate began its steady decline. The abortion rate is lower now than it was before Roe. /3
When the illiberal left began passing speech codes on campus (reaching more than 70 percent of major colleges and universities by the early 2000s), a political and legal counterattack has reduced speech codes to historic lows. /4
In 1982 the Federalist Society was founded. It's now quite possibly the most powerful private legal group in the country. In the 1990s, Christian legal organizations like ADF and ACLJ launched and have by now victory after victory at SCOTUS. /5
Campus censorship has been ROUTED as a legal matter. Now the bullying/shaming comes more from the grassroots up than the top-down, and when the power of the state can't compel silence, courageous people can still speak. /6
The difficulty of the present wave of illiberal censorship is that it often comes from private actors who are using their own rights of free speech and association to shame and intimidate and boycott. This is a problem not conducive to a governmental solution. /7
It's a blunt and sad fact that part of the present conservative Christian challenge is the fault of conservative Christians themselves. We've failed in some cases to adequately seize the moment, are too eager to delegate fights to politicians and lawyers, and . . . /8
are often consumed with anger and fear that are antithetical to their theology and harmful to their public witness. Many people choose to stay quiet and hope for someone else to make their speech easy. This is not the right course. /9
The core answer to our present challenge rests in individual courage and conviction, appealing to liberal values, seeking not mere accommodation but full shared citizenship. Defeat is not pre-ordained, and there is no need to throw out liberalism to defeat illiberalism. /end
