Two Schools of Republicans, and the Conservative Trimmer
I have been following the GOP on its fascinating journey since I was of an age at which other people couldn’t have cared less about politics. I have seen leaders and fashionable ideas come and go, and this extends also to the Party’s history before my own lifetime.
There are two schools of fish that people on the right choose to swim in, loyal to one and hating the other. Both schools have their virtues and their vices, but in the aftermath of this last election, both are showing more of the latter than the former. The purpose of this essay is to briefly summarize both of their negative tendencies and describe a new approach to politics on the right that can inspire the unity we keep hearing so much about. I call him the Conservative Trimmer.
The first school keeps coming up with new names for itself: Tea Party, Populism, whatever. Their virtues include knowing what they stand for, and much of what they stand for is American principles. Their problem is in the grumpy old fart mindset that they develop and spread, and their political tendency to be belligerent and intransigent without being effective because they don’t make people want to work with them. Failing to get what they desire only makes it worse. They have been listening to their own rhetoric for too long, they like what they hear, and they forget how it sounds, both to people who disagree and to those who don’t think about politics as much as they do. They forget that politics is the art of the possible, not the art of getting everything for nothing. Whoever doesn’t do what they want gets labeled as a traitor by them.
The second school doesn’t have a catchy name for itself; it gets labeled differently depending on who you ask. Their virtues include experience and institutional knowledge. Their problem is that they will not put their foot down when it is vitally necessary unless they are forced to. They mistake the tactical need for compromise and functioning government with a strategy; with going along to get along. They know relevant facts, but don’t fight effectively for control of the narrative. Their penchant for taking few if any risks angers the first school and plays to the benefit of the left, so everyone loses. Its tendencies would sell us out.
The point here is not to argue about specific people or assign blame for the situation we find ourselves in. It is only to provide a brief diagnosis of the problem and introduce the reader to someone who practices politics on the right differently: the Trimmer.
I borrowed the term from Lord Halifax. The Trimmer is like a captain who adjusts (trims) his sails in such a way that the ship does not drift too far in the wind’s direction if the wind is taking the ship off course. In this case, our Trimmer is trying to navigate between two shoals: the first represents the self-destructive tendencies of his own side, and the second represents the consequences of not resisting the left as much as possible. If the wind is taking the ship towards one shoal, he has to trim towards the other, without hitting either of them. He must not jump on any and every bandwagon his Party is on at a given moment.
Our Trimmer’s worldview keeps in mind that the country he loves, its institutions, his own ideas, his favorite media, and yes, even the leaders he likes and works with are sinful like everything else and thus not perfectible or free from error. Despite that, he is still most grateful and proud to be an American.
Our Trimmer recognizes his Party as a place of flawed but serious, patriotic, free-thinking individuals who should not be castigated for not agreeing on everything. He does not mistake unity with the hive-mindedness of the left.
Our Trimmer compromises when he must, but has no illusions about what the driving forces of the left would do if they thought they could get away with it. He realizes there is a limit to what the political traffic in the country will bear, but he works to move every ounce of traffic up to that limit.
Our Trimmer must not avoid hostile media nor, in excessive belligerence, supply them with ammunition. He must get all the exposure he can, and if the press plays games with the truth, he must deconstruct their narratives so that our side of the democratic dialogue can be given a fair hearing.
Our Trimmer honestly tells his constituents what his principles are, but does not promise them that every worthy goal can be achieved through the political process or that anything comes without some sort of cost.
He inspires a change in the culture. Politics is both downstream from culture and part of the culture. All the effort in the world focused into politics is in vain if there is no focus on the culture. It is the air we all breathe.
Much of the content of this blog is going to explain how our Trimmer will respond to the challenges currently facing our country. The rest of it will discuss history, faith, and culture.
