{"id":62927,"date":"2015-02-08T20:26:40","date_gmt":"2015-02-09T04:26:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lukeford.net\/blog\/?p=62927"},"modified":"2015-02-09T11:24:04","modified_gmt":"2015-02-09T19:24:04","slug":"conservative-leaders-are-wimps","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lukeford.net\/blog\/?p=62927","title":{"rendered":"Conservative Leaders Are Wimps"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Robert Weissberg<\/a>:<\/p>\n

Scanning today\u2019s conservative movement, one cannot help but notice widespread lethargy. Yes, scores of followers subscribe to its magazines, make tax-deductible donations, attend banquets, and usually vote as directed, but with few exceptions (e.g., the early days of the Tea Party), everything is rather perfunctory. If the right does get agitated, this typically reflects loathing the left versus any crusader-like zeal for its own cause.<\/p>\n

Let me offer an explanation: leaders on the right generally lack courage, and this deficiency undercuts enthusiasm. Few are inclined to follow a spineless functionary into battle. Alexander the Great explained it perfectly: an army of sheep led by a lion is more to be feared than an army of lions led by a sheep. I cannot think of a single conservative leader or organization that could be, even slightly, characterized as lion-like \u201ccourageous.\u201d Energizing the troops has come to mean enticing big donors to open their wallets. <\/p>\n

Alexander the Great exemplified courage when he personally led the charge, even if gravely wounded and an easy target for his enemies. Similarly, in 1794 when western Pennsylvania farmers offered armed resistance to paying a federal tax on whiskey, President George Washington personally commanded 13,000 militiamen to suppress the insurgency.<\/p>\n

Courageous leadership is undoubtedly hardwired genetically as a survival trait, at least until now. Tribes governed by wimps have long exited the gene pool. It is hardly accidental that 19th-century Americans favored presidents who had personally displayed battlefield bravery: Andrew Jackson, William Henry Harrison, Ulysses S. Grant, and James Garfield among several others had demonstrated their mettle. Meanwhile, today\u2019s commanders-in-chief travel in huge motorcades, hidden from public view, with a \u201cfake\u201d presidential limousine, hundreds of security agents, even ambulances.<\/p>\n

On a personal note, I recall my mother, a lifelong Roosevelt Democrat, shocking me in 1980 when she told me she planned to vote for Reagan. She explained, \u201cHe\u2019ll stand up to them!\u201d She was, of course, intuitively right. <\/p>\n

Note well, today\u2019s courageousness does not require repeatedly risking life or limb. The PC- dominated world is target-rich \u2013 how about a presidential candidate hinting that we may want to re-examine affirmative action or federal laws mandating strict gender equality? These suggestions, even couched in the midlist language possible, are now unthinkable. So much for moxie when challenging the left\u2019s imposed taboos.<\/p>\n

But, multiple opportunities for non-life-threatening displays of courage aside, conservative leaders remain cowards. Indeed, those who manage candidates on the campaign trail are terrified that their charges will go off message and speak bluntly (i.e., honestly) about some \u201ccontroversial\u201d topic. Recall Romney\u2019s awkward effort in 2012 to walk back his blunt comments about so many Americans living off government largess. So deep is this fear that today\u2019s conservative luminaries even avoid once revered terms that the contemporary left deems \u201coffensive\u201d code words \u2013 colorblind, merit, self-reliance, and personal responsibility. Alexander would certainly conclude that modern conservatives are led by timid, cowering sheep. We live in a time of terror, but even conservatives worship the soft-hearted gods of multi-culturalism, diversity, and inclusion. <\/p>\n

The catalogue of conservatives displaying cowardice in protecting their own is lengthy, and only a few examples must suffice. We all know about National Review\u2019s Rich Lowry excommunicating John Derbyshire for his impolite racial truth-telling at Takimag. Then there\u2019s Heritage Foundation canning Jason Richwine in 2013 when he was \u201couted\u201d for using scientific data to argue that welcoming low-IQ Mexicans would dumb America down. Recall how Sam Francis was fired from the Washington Times for his racial heresies. None of these excommunications involved slander, expressing scientifically incorrect thoughts, or physically harming anyone. Nobody shouted \u201cfire\u201d in a crowded theater. The sins were all about some vague offensiveness.<\/p>\n

Overwhelmingly, however, today\u2019s pusillanimity among conservatives occurs by omission \u2013 dogs that do not bark. Call it self-sanitization or pre-emptive surrender. I once attended a lunch sponsored by an eminent conservative organization about fixing Detroit. During the two-hour event, total silence regarding Detroit\u2019s large, troublesome black underclass as a possible source of the city\u2019s travails. The proposed solutions were totally inoffensive \u2013 building infrastructure and attracting industrious immigrants. When an audience member asked about recruiting entrepreneurs to a city with the nation\u2019s worst schools, Rick Snyder, Michigan\u2019s Republican governor, explained that he had recently visited a Detroit school and found it exceptionally vibrant. So much for speaking truth to power.<\/p>\n

Such silent cowardice is typical. If America\u2019s educational woes are the subject of a conservative forum, don\u2019t expect respectable conservatives to even hint of group shortcomings in cognitive ability and the shifting demography of America\u2019s K-12 students. Discussion will address sanitized ephemera \u2013 the alleged benefits of school choice, excessive power of teachers\u2019 unions, the centralized curriculum, merit pay and tough testing, the curse of cultural Marxism, and teacher tenure. Hardly surprising, since nearly all self-defined conservatives discussing education dread being labeled racists, haters, xenophobic believers in false stereotypes, or worse. Better to get it wrong than cause trouble.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Robert Weissberg: Scanning today\u2019s conservative movement, one cannot help but notice widespread lethargy. Yes, scores of followers subscribe to its magazines, make tax-deductible donations, attend banquets, and usually vote as directed, but with few exceptions (e.g., the early days … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4677],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-62927","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-republicans"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t