How the Right is Finally Learning to Take Over Institutions

Aaron Renn writes Feb. 13:

Conservatives can’t use the long march strategy because the left isn’t dumb enough to let them penetrate institutions. Instead, conservatives need to do the equivalent of a private equity buyout and restructure institutions from the top down.

…ownership of Twitter marked the first time someone on the right actually acquired ownership of a major culture shaping institution and leveraged that ownership for political and cultural change. This arguably played an important role in Trump’s election, and Musk now plays a key role in the administration (for now at least). The Twitter ownership change is also probably one of the big factors in the recent “vibe shift” in the culture. And this was from controlling and fully leveraging just one institution.

The other interesting thing is that it is the left that chose exit from Twitter, largely leaving for the startup Bluesky app, which has become a low quality left wing echo chamber. They intentionally marginalized themselves from the discourse because by and large the mainstream, including most major journalists, stayed on X.

Musk’s Twitter takeover is the exact opposite of the typical pattern. Conservatives took over a liberal institution, and the left exited for a lower quality, culturally marginal platform.