For too long, the right has given the left not only the leeway to get away with anything, but also allowed the left to appoint itself judge, jury, and executioner – setting the standards that the left itself refuses to live by. It’s “do as I say, not as I do.”
And the reason why the left has been able to do so, is that the right has for too long refused to fill the vacuum by taking charge and imposing its will on others – it’s a feature and not a bug of the libertarian mindset that has come to permeate throughout Western conservatism.
Libertarianism is a peaceful, “live and let live” philosophy – and one that came about in good times. But as the saying goes, “good times make weak men.” And that’s exactly where we are today – because these are times of war, and the left is fighting to win. In short, libertarianism is incompatible with conservatism, and it must be uncoupled from the notion of “conservative values” for conservatism to have even a chance at conserving anything.
The slow decline of conservatism will inevitably lead one to ask, “What has conservatism conserved?”
While conservatives are like progressives driving at the speed limit, progressives are accelerating. They’re going faster and farther than ever before – dismantling cultural norms and challenging basic decency.