Remember the feeling of excitement when Reagan won in 1980? Americans who loathed living under the heel of big government thought that the country was in for a dramatic turnabout. Never happened. Government grew less rapidly, but it still kept growing. The last time government actually shrunk was under Calvin Coolidge.
Professor Mark Bauerlein has some thoughts about this on American Greatness.
He entitles his essay “Leftists Aren’t Losers,” and by that he means that they are relentless. Even after losses, they press forward with more of their demands for a society that’s under their domination. On the other hand, conservatives are content with minor victories.
Writes Bauerlein, “When progressives lose, they only try harder. Defeat doesn’t demoralize them—it energizes them. They have the zeal of true believers, and setbacks seem to them a species of persecution that confirms their rightness. When conservatives beat them, leftists return the next day with the same demands asserted in the same language. They have stamina and confidence and dedication. Defeat doesn’t lead to retreat. They aren’t losers.”
I think he’s on to something.
My take on this: We get our short-run political victories, but all the while the statists continue working to change the culture. They use education and the media to make people afraid of freedom, clamoring for government to protect them from all sorts of terrors like capitalism, climate change, “white hegemony,” and so on.
Unless and until we manage to revive the belief in freedom, the Left will continue to advance. That revival must be our big objective, and it must be pursued as single-mindedly as the Left has pursued its goal of getting people to worship the Nanny State.