This website concentrates on the dominating role of the Media Class in Western Societies and the Mainstream Media’s unrelenting war on Conservatism, Christianity and Nationalism. It is however incumbent upon Radical and Right to set out our own views on the political movements we defend against the Media Class, so that readers can see why we are not aligned with any one of them. It may be that we are representative of many on the Right who deplore the Media’s agenda but who cannot commit to a specific ideology, party or Faith.
Ideologies can be dangerous forces, breeding fanaticism, unquestioning loyalty and the imposition upon peoples of unworkable blueprints. At the same time, political parties and politicians who have no firm ideology, end up being opportunistic, self serving and ineffectual. The Media Class has had no problem corrupting or capturing opponents lacking in ideology, witness the Anglican Church of England, the British Conservative Party and a substantial wing of the US Republican Party. It also has had much success demonizing ideological political movements it fears, witness the BNP, the British National Front and the National Front of France.
There is another problem for those who seek a political force capable of resisting the Media Class and effectively dealing with political, social and economic problems. Ideologies can set aside the world as it is, and set out blueprints for their versions of a perfect future. Inevitably, given power, ideologies then resort to tyranny in order to implement the blueprint. Ordinary political parties and their politicians, who compromise on ideology in order to attain a mass following, have to deal with the world as it is. Few political leaders have been able to combine both ideology and pragmatism, in the process achieving important and beneficial results and carrying their people with them. Ronald Reagan stands out as such a politician. The Media Class did all it could to destroy him from day one, and still resents his legacy, but he has left behind a reputation that other living ex-Presidents must envy.
There are a number of daunting problems that will test a Rightwing or Conservative political party and its leadership, especially while enduring the constant onslaught of a powerful Media Class. Immigration, global trade, Israel/Palestine, militant Islam, publicly financed welfare, homosexual militancy, abortion, health care and ecological challenges, all leap out at this writer. xyx
Reagan’s success was due to the internal balance he maintained between his ideological commitment to free markets and anti-communism, his personal Christian faith, his ability to speak to the American public over the heads of the Media and a pragmatism that he learned from experience as a practising politician and union activist. We might aptly say that Reagan incorporated common sense into his armory. Of course, there were issues he did not address and ones he got wrong, but he faced down the global communist threat, reinforced the principle of free speech and gave American conservatism a new lease of life.
We can apply to many daunting issues a mix of ideology and common sense, and recognize that we do not start from scratch, but inherit some things that cannot be undone without using methods that would be inhuman (and unacceptable) and courting terrible consequences.
In the next article we will apply this approach to the issue of mass immigration.