For Lasting Political Success, We’ll Need to Persuade Some Fence-sitting Liberals

Imagine you, a principled conservative, are reading this column in January 2018. Looking back on 2017, you’re both exhilarated and exhausted. Exhilarated, because so many of your public policy goals have been realized. Exhausted, because you have been called names, listened to excessive and often untrue charges by your political opponents, and realized as never before how deeply divided your country is concerning cultural issues and moral values.

Say that a year from now the Supreme Court, now composed of a majority whose fidelity to the Constitution means they respect that actual meaning of its text, has corrected Roe v. Wade and Obergefell v. Hodges. Issues of abortion and same-sex marriage have been returned to the states, where a preponderance of state legislation favors both the sanctity of life and marriage solely as the union of one man and one woman.

Tax reductions for businesses and individuals have been enacted. The size and growth of the federal government are being curtailed and America’s military is on track to being more robust than at any time in recent decades. Protections for persons of religious conscience who decline to serve wedding ceremonies that violate their faith have been signed into law.

A blunt-spoken President Trump has put America’s adversaries (e.g., China) and outright enemies (e.g., North Korea) on notice that the new sheriff in town won’t put up with threats to American security (and has done so with respect to Russia, as well).

Obamacare has been repealed and replaced with a market-based system that is much more cost-effective and patient-focused that its Rube Goldberg-esque predecessor. Immigration reform that is temperate, reasonable and humane has been enacted into law. Even the federal regulatory apparatus is being deconstructed, slowly but significantly.

So far, so good. Even exhilarating.

Yet in the process, people you admire and respect have been labeled as hateful, bigoted, fascistic, heartless, venal and saber-rattling reactionaries. You views have been called extreme, out of the mainstream, uncompassionate and racist. You want to turn back the clock, unbend the arc of history, destroy reproductive freedom and oppress the LGBT community. You are ignorant, uneducated, selfish, materialistic, greedy, acquisitive, consumeristic and insular, largely because you are skeptical of the effectiveness of federal interventions in economic and social institutions.

Exhausted yet?

Conservatives delighted with the recent stunning gains made at every level of elective politics have every right to be cheerful these days. Their candidates won, their ideas seized the public imagination and their hard work in stopping the onslaught of the Left succeeded.

Anyone who thinks that the left will soon recede into the gathering fog of irrelevance does not understand its emotional appeal.

Yet if we believe that liberalism will go quietly into the dark night, we are deluding ourselves. They still have a large, vocal and indignant presence on Capitol Hill and, especially, in big city governments. Their vision of America has been repudiated at the polls but remains undimmed in their hearts and minds. Their allies in the education, entertainment and mainstream media worlds, especially as to issues related to human sexuality (abortion, “gay rights” and legal coercion in areas related to these things), are equally as intransigent advocates as are they.

The political battle will be ongoing for a long time. A couple election wins do not a social and political revolution make. Anyone who thinks that the left will soon recede into the gathering fog of irrelevance does not understand its emotional appeal (it’s about freedom and compassion, right?) or the vehemence of its champions. They believe as deeply and intensely in their worldview as conservatives do in theirs, and their First Amendment rights assure them of the right to be heard. And given the nature of the print and electronic press (the media are disposed to liberalism and love controversy), 2017 promises to be exceptionally contentious.

This contention will be augmented by the American people themselves. As has been said quite often, the divisions in our country are sharp, deep and dangerous. The crevasses separating us are wide and yawning. What is liberty to one is license to another. Declarations of moral propositions, seen as inoffensive and obvious to one, are viewed as severe and unauthoritative by another. Right and wrong are hurtful categories to many of our fellow citizens; appropriate and unwise are terms with which they are far more at ease.

The job before conservatives is two-fold: First, enact laws, make appointments and create policies that reflect the conservative vision for America, a vision that is, in my view, both constitutional and compassionate, respectful of human dignity and grounded in dedication to life, liberty, virtue and property.

Second, persuade. Seek to change the minds of your liberal opponents, whether they live in your cul-de-sac, serve in Congress or make movies. Be brave, be wise, be thoughtful and be articulate. Start by finding common ground (“we all care for our kids”) and always seek to affirm the value even of those who oppose you dogmatically. Do not depersonalize your opponents; give them water, as it were, and pray for them.

Support secular college and public school teachers as they seek to stand for their faith in often painfully hard arenas. Support efforts by Christians in the arts and media to bring quality alternatives to mainstream entertainment venues, not just specifically Christian outlets. Support journalists whose conservatism mandates fairness, not propagandization, even if fairness costs them their jobs. Pray for those who oppose or even hate you; bless, and curse not.

And appeal to them based on “the requirement of the law written on the heart” (Romans 2:15). Hardened Marxists still love their children. Such love is innate. So are other things. Appeal to your political enemies based on their compassion for their families, their inherent desire for love and respect, and their recognition that children merit protection, not exposure to the filth of far too much of the world.

“Do I not destroy my enemies,” asked Abraham Lincoln, “when I make them my friends?” Of course, we will never make all our enemies our friends. But we can make some of them our friends, and at least show many of the rest we mean well, and not ill, are thoughtful and not foolish, and care for the well-being of all, not just some, Americans.

As our fellow citizens, do we owe them any less?