NO MORE HALF MEASURES: PART II

THE DISCIPLINE OF WINNING

Oath of the Horatii by Jacques-Louis David, 1784

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The past seventy years of conservatism have been dominated by performative outrage, symbolic Congressional hearings that achieve nothing, and a media landscape that has pointed out problems in great detail yet has been curiously silent on advocating for or demanding solutions. This way of conducting business has been an unmitigated disaster for the conservative movement, as it has led to scores of leftist victories. While this tradition of inaction has been alleviated somewhat in recent years under President Trump, the ascendant New Right must not believe or accept that the current admixture of action and apathy seen in today’s political landscape should be the standard operating procedure for their future political endeavors. 

To ensure permanent and lasting success the New Right must embrace victory as the highest good, and any principles which forbid or hinder action in the face of the existential threat that the Left poses are immoral because they ensure defeat. Thus, the proceduralism and moralization that the conservative movement has heretofore languished under must be excised in order to secure the nation’s survival. Put bluntly, this is a civilizational struggle for the soul of this nation between a small yet venomous coalition on one side and the people of God on the other. Therefore, power is and must be the final end of the burgeoning new Right if total victory is to be achieved to save our civilization.

“Acquire power” and “reject inaction” are somewhat vague and enigmatic instructions, and so they require clarification. The exhortation that the movement must reject inaction is a charge to first reject the underlying premise that brought about the inaction. That is, namely, the old order of liberal civility, of attempting to find common ground, the idea that everyone is playing fair in the political sandbox, and of treating politics as merely a difference of opinion. All that is over. The last of it died with Charlie Kirk. His assassination revealed to the previously uninformed and confirmed to those paying attention that this whole time it was only the Right that was playing the political game by these rules. It should be noted too that the Left has never played by the rules or standards of the Right. The Left was never interested in finding common ground or engaging in dialogue; it was principally concerned with advancing its own agenda. The New Right has finally caught up and ought to heartily embrace the tactics of its enemies, for our principles, no matter how moral they may be, will not save us if we refuse to act and enforce them. It does not matter how factually correct we are in debates or logically sound in essays if we do nothing in the face of an enemy that seeks to destroy the very fundament of our civilization.

To ensure permanent and lasting success the new Right must embrace victory as the highest good, and any principles which forbid or hinder action in the face of the existential threat that the Left poses are immoral because they ensure defeat.

The second facet of rejecting inaction is to embrace its inverse. In 1963, George Lincoln Rockwell, like a secular prophet, wrote in This Time the World as though he were living in our time. He asserted that:

“As long as the right-wing confines its fighting to being ‘nice’, the great masses of the public will bow down like the sheep they are to the left-wing which is not nice—which uses smear, economic persecution, legal harassment and finally, physical terror to maintain its domination of our national life and culture by force. The force is disguised, of course, in checkbooks, judges’ robes, rigged party conventions, etc., but it is still force or the threat of it which has America down and afraid. No amount of papers and pamphlets, were they all masterpieces of propaganda, and no amount of talk and meetings can stop this growing left-wing force and power, and the fear it inspires—much less drive it back and destroy it.” 

His analysis of the tactics of the Left wing was as true then as it is today, and his prophecy that nothing the Right could do would stop them, save putting on the gloves and stepping into the arena, proved to be wholly true. This is evidenced by the slew of leftist victories in the decades after his book was published. The lesson for our day is that the ascendant Right wing must stop playing nice. Every tool at our disposal must be utilized to bring about the realization of our political and cultural goals. What Rockwell is getting at is the sentiment, attributed to Napoleon, that the man who saves his country does no wrong. Fighting nice as the Right has been doing since Rockwell will not save this nation from decline. 

What does this ruthless political pragmatism look like in practice? It is just how the Left has been operating for the last three quarters of a century. Rank tribalism, unquestioned loyalty to those fellow travelers in the movement, the belief in the preeminence of victory, the utilization of any tactics, even underhanded ones, to obtain it, and the abstention from anything that would prevent victory. This is by no means to say that the Right should stoop to the depraved methods of the Weathermen or Black Panthers or take up the practice of rioting in the streets like animals, or tell base lies and thus be defiled with sin. In so many words, the New Right must acquire the political realism and single-mindedness of the Left while taking none of their defilement. Not every tactic is permissible to achieve the Right’s ends, but many things have to be done in the service of Truth that have no recent precedent. 

Any political, legal, or media tactic that both furthers the New Right and its goals and is generally morally defensible is permissible. It is a grave error to believe that we are in possession of the highest and fullest expression of Truth and then decline to foist that Truth onto society. It is insufficient to say in word or in deed, “You live your life, and I'll live mine. As long as you're not bothering me, all is well, live and let live.” The time has come to plainly acknowledge that this is a fight for the continued survival of our very civilization between the Right and the Left, and that, either by hook or by crook, the Right will and must win. This is the policy of action that has been so sorely lacking, and it is by this policy that leftist victories will be first slowed and then reversed. 

This thesis of the realignment from inaction to the relentless pursuit of political and cultural triumph may conceivably be accused of being Nietzschean, un-Christian, and lacking both principles and a firm moral grounding. To assert that any action which furthers the movement is permissible blurs the boundaries between moral impermissibility and legitimate action. This is, however, simply not the case. One does not need to reject God or the Holy Writ and throw in their lot with Nietzsche in order to value victory gained through action. This generation needs to be reminded that Christianity is not a weak religion, and the Church throughout her two millennia of existence, both in the East and West, has faced existential threats which she has met with unbounded courage and relentless action. Never once, out of some misguided sense of morality, did the Church throw open its gates to invaders or choose not to fight the enemies of Christendom. To assert that we Americans should hand over our nation and our people into the hands of those who hate us, because to resist them by any means necessary would be immoral, is a uniquely Protestant notion. It is the abandonment of such manful courage that has brought this nation to where it is today. The kingdom of God, says St. Thomas Beckett, must be defended like any other kingdom.

As regards the acquisition of power, it is through this acquisition that the ascendant Right gains the ability to carry out action. Rockwell says of this endeavor that one “must dislodge such evil usurpers by the same weapon which got them in: power! Theirs was and is secret and disguised. Ours, by nature, must be open, legal and honest, but it must still be power, not talk or pamphlets or sneaky dreams. Thus, it involves risk.” This is by no means an easy task because it is the youth that predominantly comprise the New Right, and they are far from being appointed the Under Secretary of War, or any other major role within traditional power structures. This observation is not defeatist rhetoric that there is no political solution and that the road to politically powerful positions should not be taken. Rather, it illustrates the necessity for young, aligned individuals to start down that road, long though it might be, so that they might one day sit in the various seats of power and thus execute the Right’s vision. The Left notably did this with the universities in the 1960’s, and that infiltration still has not been rooted out. They were also successful in almost completely taking over the Senior Executive Service that was begun under President Carter.

History will remember what was done in these years, in this time of precipitous political change and realignment.

The necessity of occupying positions in the traditional power structures of the legal profession, academia, the media, and politics cannot be overstated. It doesn’t ultimately matter how many Americans are awakened to the Truth if the men of the New Right are not the decision makers. Rockwell in the same text offers a sobering and damning conclusion that: 

“The battle between the 'conservatives' and 'liberals' is not a battle of ideas or even of political organizations. It is a battle of force, terror and power. [The Left] can stay in power only because people are afraid to oppose them—afraid they will be socially ostracized, smeared in the press, lose their jobs, not be able to run their businesses, afraid they will lose political offices. It is fear, and fear alone which keeps these filthy left-wing sneaks in power—not ignorance by the American people as the 'conservatives' keep telling each other. Our right-wing 'fighters' keep assuring each other ‘Ye shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free’—when the truth is that any slave knows the truth—that he is a slave—but he is not free in spite of knowing this truth, unless he can somehow get the power to force his way to freedom. It is not the truth which will make us free in America, because millions already know the truth and hate bitterly what is going on, but they are afraid even to admit they know the truth.”

Everything in this text is relevant to the present day. Awakening the masses is but the first step of the equation, and the acquisition of power is the second and absolutely necessary step if the ascendant Right is to realize their goals. No matter how much the electorate yearns for real change, the occupants within the traditional power structures are under no obligation to oblige their wishes. For as long as the Left dominates the universities, revisionist history will continue to be written. The federal bureaucracy will continue to fight a shadow civil war against a true right-wing agenda so long as it is dominated by leftists and do-nothing conservatives. For as long as members of the conservative old guard dominate positions of political influence, nothing will change. The infiltration of these institutions at the ground level is one of the few ways that the New Right will acquire power.

History will remember what was done in these years, in this time of precipitous political change and realignment. The New Right, on pain of its existence and vitality, must not repeat the mistakes of older variants of conservatism. Inaction must become anathematized and apathy excommunicated from the movement, for the stakes have never been higher. What is happening now politically is not merely a difference of policy or opinion with well-meaning people, but rather a battle for the soul of this nation and the future of what it will become. The Left understands this perfectly well and has for many years. It is time for the movement to catch up. The achievement of victory through the acquisition of power and unbridled action is not grandiose rhetoric; it is the only way that the Right will win. The time has come for the movement to fully commit to the fight, for as the popular adage says, half measures avail us nothing.

This is the second part of a two part essay. Click here for the first part.