Suicide of the Conservative Movement

Jonah Goldberg appeared recently on “Conversations with Bill Kristol” to discuss his new book, Suicide of the West. During his chat with one of the nation’s preeminent NeverTrumpers, Goldberg betrayed a serious lack of perspective—one that is indicative of a broader problem in mainstream conservatism.

In the midst of discussing politics and our current political moment, Goldberg noted there are some conservatives who view politics as a “game”—as just about getting “points on the board.” (He made clear this was a descriptive rather than a pejorative remark, and there’s no reason to doubt him.) From there, however, he went on to compare our politics to children’s sports. If your kid were playing, say, basketball, Goldberg reasoned, and the star player on the opposing team was cheating—throwing elbows, for example—you would be incensed and rightly so. You would be even more upset if the referees failed to stop the play and sanction the offending player.

So far, all true. Then Goldberg asserted many on the Right have in recent years contracted “Alinsky envy” as a reaction to the Left’s “cheating.” In short, the Right responds to the Left’s cheating with their own “cheating.” Since cheating is bad, Goldberg laments our current situation.

But some questions spring to mind. Exactly what do Goldberg and those who applaud this analysis have in mind when they lament “cheating” from the Right? Is it that the Right has stooped to the Left’s level since the election of Donald Trump? What does that mean? What exactly has the Right done wrong? We can note, almost without limit, the Left’s penchant for dirty play. But we have yet to hear exactly how the Right has debased itself. Goldberg is frustratingly short on specifics. He seems more concerned with tone.

That speaks to the deeper problem. Goldberg knows perfectly well that politics is nothing like a youth basketball game. In such a game, there are referees whose job it is to regulate the flow of play and punish those who violate the rules of the game. When someone cheats, the ref—who’s presumed by both sides to be legitimate—has the authority to sort out disputes, decide if there’s been a violation, and, if so, what the punishment should be.