What will it take to beat back the rising tide of interest in Socialism? It starts by telling a more inspiring and compelling story than the one Bernie Bros are slinging.
The Left has long since figured out something the right has been slower in figuring out. Facts matter, but Narrative — the stories we tell one another about ourselves — drives cultural change.
Their side appeals to greed, envy and fear, dressing it all up in the trappings of nobility and care for the ‘oppressed’ (a term with notoriously slippery definitions).
To counter that appeal to the base selfishness, ego and corruption of human nature will require an appeal to our more noble instincts.
Instincts that were once integral to the American DNA, instincts that were pivotal to us going from a backwater colony to world’s greatest superpower in just a few short centuries. That may seem like a long time to us, but it’s scarcely the blink of an eye in the timeline of the world’s more ancient cultures.
When it came his turn to speak at CPAC, Dan Crenshaw was telling exactly the right kind of story.
The story of America is at stake.
Our story is one of exceptionalism and prosperity, not socialism and despair.
Our story is one of independence and personal freedom, not the false promises of collectivists.
Our American story is the greatest one ever told. Share it. pic.twitter.com/dESzVUz1dl
— Rep. Dan Crenshaw (@RepDanCrenshaw) February 28, 2020
We could use a thousand more like him.
And if we REALLY wanted to see deep change, you’d pair that inspirational optimism about what made America great with the philosophically sophisticated understanding about what makes both worlds tick that we saw in Bill Barr’s speech this week: WATCH: Barr Powerfully Defends Traditional American Liberty Against An All-Powerful Totalitarian State!
If ideas like THESE worked their way back into the national consciousness, the Socialists and their ‘philosophy of failure, the creed of ignorance, and the gospel of envy’, as Churchill called it, would have nowhere to take root.
