Despite So Much Winning, The Right Feels Like It's Losing

[knapplc]

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Despite So Much Winning, The Right Feels Like It's Losing

 

At the core of the problem for many American conservatives is a feeling that the culture war has been irrevocably lost to their ideological opponents.

 

"Politics is downstream from culture. And I do think that it's true that conservatives have lost in many ways the culture," said Matt Lewis, a conservative columnist for The Daily Beast who has previously worked for conservative outlets like The Daily Caller and Human Events.

 

He also said, "There is a sense on the right that is apocalyptic and fearful."

 

Earlier this month, Jesse Kelly, a writer for the mainstream conservative website The Federalist, wrote that Americans on the left and right can't get along anymore, that domestic unrest could be coming and that the best alternative course would be to just split the country up.

 

"We're just not on the same page on anything anymore. Rather than the constant fighting and before it gets really nasty, I think we should just go our separate ways," Kelly told NPR.

 

Kurt Schlichter, a columnist for the conservative Townhall.com, recently wrote a column speculating about whether there could be another civil war. He concluded there could be one and predicted how the left would lose a violent conflict if it came to it.

 

"We want to be treated with respect, and we will not tolerate anything less which is just unacceptable for this to continue. I'm tired of Hollywood spitting on us. I am tired of academia spitting on us. I'm tired of the news media spitting on us," he said.

 

Trump ran on these frustrations — but his election, as well as the election of many other Republicans to positions of political power, haven't dulled them.

 

This feeling of losing the American culture war reflects polling of white, working-class Americans. A poll taken last year by the Public Religion Research Institute and The Atlantic showed 48 percent of them believe that "things have changed so much that I often feel like a stranger in my own country."

 

"I mean, shoot, I had a conversation with my mother about this a couple of years ago," Kelly said. "This had nothing to do with the election or anything else. Like something's coming, it just feels that way and I don't like it. I don't like it at all."

 

These feelings pop up on all sorts of political issues, from Diamond and Silk — also known as Lynette Hardaway and Rochelle Richardson — to accusations of "fake news" to the schadenfreude on the right over Kanye West's complimentary tweets about Trump this week.

 

The 2018 midterms are coming up in just a few months. Midterms are often about exciting your base and running against the other side.

 

Democrats are doing that by running against Donald Trump. Republicans may find that tapping into these feelings about losing power in society is the best way to motivate their base.

 

 

 

The problem with the Right is that their ideology is so tied up with emotion rather than fact. It is difficult to counter fact with emotion, but while feelings may be valid, they may also be based on invalid premises.  When those feelings are confronted by contrary facts, the Right doesn't adjust their feelings, they claim persecution. We've seen this time & again right here on HuskerBoard.

 

Regarding the bold: I've had that same conversation myself.

[funhusker]

I also had those hypothetical conversations about civil war.  What people usually fail to remember is the Govt/Military isn't going to stand idly by and let the "gun toting, tough guy, WWE fan" run roughshod over the "pink hat wearing, computer nerd, Downtown Abby fan".  If a "liberal" government is in power and implementing and enforcing laws within the scope of the constitution, a lot of people are going to find out how useless their gun cabinet actually is if they choose to take up arms in revolt.

 

 

IF....it ever gets to that point  I don't see a "left" or "right" victor.  America will become a military state.  Sounds great! 

[teachercd]

1 hour ago, funhusker said:

I also had those hypothetical conversations about civil war.  What people usually fail to remember is the Govt/Military isn't going to stand idly by and let the "gun toting, tough guy, WWE fan" run roughshod over the "pink hat wearing, computer nerd, Downtown Abby fan".  If a "liberal" government is in power and implementing and enforcing laws within the scope of the constitution, a lot of people are going to find out how useless their gun cabinet actually is if they choose to take up arms in revolt.

 

 

IF....it ever gets to that point  I don't see a "left" or "right" victor.  America will become a military state.  Sounds great! 

No kidding!  

[Redux]

1 hour ago, funhusker said:

 "gun toting, tough guy, WWE Fan".

 

[funhusker]

45 minutes ago, Redux said:

 

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[JJ Husker]

Meh, I think we're a long ways from civil war or splitting up the country. Hopefully both sides can moderate a bit and begin to work together at least a little. I do however think we'll see even more domestic unrest before the voters realize the status quo is not sustainable and start taking things more seriously.

 

Going separate ways may not be as bad as it sounds as there are some rather large ideological differences and culture issues. The problem is they're not well delineated by state. On the surface it may look like they are but even Cali has conservatives and Texas has their liberals. Whichever side gets the west half of the country is the side I'll choose. I'm not a fan of the east coast or the southeast.

[Redux]

[TonyStalloni]

Outside of a few ideas I have seen about splitting up the country, it would be a difficult process.  One that I have seen shows the state of California carved up by drawing a line from just north and east of San Francisco to just east and south of LA and allowing that area to secede. Another shows the city of Chicago seceding from the state of Illinois. Doubtful in both cases probably.  As far as civil war, it would only happen a few times that the two sides would clash in large numbers.  If the National Guard was called out and ordered to fire on American citizens, it could split the military with soldiers refusing to fire on whichever ideology they identified with.  After that it would become similar to Ireland when they had the unrest.  There would be bombings and assassinations not skirmishes between militias.  I pray we don't ever become that.

[Making Chimichangas]

 

 

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Kurt Schlicter said: (regarding how conservatives are treated) We want to be treated with respect, and we will not tolerate anything less which is just unacceptable for this to continue.

 

 

My GAWD...the irony is incredible.  This has been the core message us in the LBGTQIA community have been trying to get across to Republicans for decades.

 

And reading the OP...I am getting the impression that there are many white conservatives who would love to "ethnically cleanse" the US.  Am I reading too much into this?  Seems like a LOT of conservatives actually want a 2nd civil war.