Conservatism: The Hard Sell

The problem with being a conservative is that it's hard to sell. Liberals and progressives have a distinct rhetorical advantage: free stuff for everyone and no need for personal responsibility because the government will take care of you with someone else's money!

The conservative message is extremely difficult to swallow to someone who's inclined to think the government nanny state sounds utopian. Conservatism says "pick yourself up, dust yourself off and try again." It says that living in this country doesn't guarantee you riches; it guarantees you the opportunities you can't find in any other nation on earth. It recognizes that the federal government does you no favors by infantilizing you and deeming you incapable of caring for yourself and your family; it argues that welfare incentivizes a victim mentality and penalizes innovation and success. It insists that charity happens at home and that there's no such thing as a free lunch. And it points out that robbing Peter to pay Paul makes absolutely no logical sense; a culture of borrowing a ton of money and spending even more is unsustainable and leaves future generation impoverished before they've even been born.

On second thought, maybe it's not a hard sell.