Why Conservatives Always Seem to Lose

Tolkien said, 'I am a Christian…so that I do not expect ‘history’ to be anything but a ‘long defeat’ — though it contains (and in a legend may contain more clearly and movingly) some samples or glimpses of final victory.'

 From Building Catholic Culture

By Jared Staudt, PhD

As a follow up to my piece on true conservatism and its principles, I want to reflect on why conservatives continue to lose ground against our culture’s “religion of self” that idolizes freedom and enshrines it ever more firmly in society.

Over the last sixty years we have witnessed a seemingly unstoppable march triumphing new freedoms for the individual. Conservatives fruitlessly have protested, temporarily erected roadblocks, clamored for needed reform, only to watch the next liberal victory for fabricated human “rights.”

Why?

Americans believe in progress and freedom as fundamental principles of human life and society. On these terms, there is no way conservatives can win. No matter how bad things get, progress continues to deliver formerly unimaginable technological breakthroughs, cementing the notion of our superiority to past societies. This progress appears as a gradual, unstoppable force to advance freedom. Freedom has become the predominate good cherished and defended by Western society, which stamps its goodness upon anything that advances its cause.

There are some issues that appear to be unpopular until a breakthrough happens, some cultural catalyst occurs, and public opinion swings to cement it. One opening quickly leads to another. Such was the case in regards to gay marriage, with opinion polls shifting strongly in the 2010s decade, with the 2015 Obergefell v. Hodges decision cementing this cultural change. Immediately following this decision, the push for transgenderism began as the logical next step, which has led to a surge of support, cultural influence, and larger identification within a movement. We can look back to the 1960s for the beginning of the domino effect, with no fault divorce, contraceptives, abortion beginning the collapse of traditional morality, all centered around the expansion of privacy and individual rights. The next step always appears as an advance of freedom and anything standing in its way or seeking to reverse it receives the label of “taking away freedom.”

Conservatives may score a major political victory, yet while in office they never can restore what has been lost or even maintain the status quo. No one wants freedom to be “taken away” from another. No one can effectively resist the next expression of personal freedom. We have no standard of the good to which we can appeal. Only freedom and its obstacles remain in the popular moral imagination. Conservatives cannot resist this tsunami, and many undermine effective opposition from within. Some key politician, justice, cultural, or even religious figure caves, not wanting to be a bad guy, preferring to ride a wave of popular opinion: “I’m not a bigot like those others. I stand for freedom.”

I am not saying we cannot find our way out of this spiral of decline. In fact, my most recent book, How the Eucharist Can Save Civilization, reflects on how we can begin rebuilding from within, receiving the Lord’s divine power within us in a way that will reshape our lives and begin to change others. I believe that the Lord will inspire renewal–it is what he does–beginning in the souls of the faithful, flowing out into their families, and, from there, into their local communities.

That said, it does not appear that our current slide will cease any time soon. We are in the midst of a losing battle, because its very dynamics work against it. There is honor in fighting a losing battle with dignity, especially knowing that there war will continue despite temporary losses. We must begin the work of renewal in any way that we can through our family life, work, local community, and education. The way out must include rediscovering freedom as ordered toward what is good rather than source of goodness.