The biggest challenge to conservatism it seems, is not, to derive and demonstrate how and why it stands for essential humane values like freedom and liberty; but to constantly falsify the narrative that it is fascism. The dominant perception (misperception) about conservatism among laymen to politics is: the political philosophy that wants to trap women inside their homes and marriages and make them mere servants to their husbands and objects to society. This perception (misperception) might be good enough to get a cheer and a few applauses in a college auditorium full of lefties, but is as far from the truth as saying, “I like Bernie Sanders”.
Terms such as bigot, racist, sexist, homophobic, Islamophobic and most commonly fascist or a Nazi (and a whole bunch of other ones) are repeatedly thrown at conservatives and on many occasions considered equivalent to the term ‘conservative’.
It is hard to devise as to whether this is a shortcoming of conservatives, or is the left due a little political credit. Whatever be the case, it is an undeniable truth that while the reputation of conservatism is high and rising in certain sections of certain countries; it is far from being accepted as even a perceivable political philosophy in large sections of society, especially teenagers and young adults (how can it be, given its fascism!).
In India (my home country), barely has anyone heard of the term ‘conservatism’ (quite astonishing, given it is the world’s largest democracy and conservative philosophy being one of the primary preachers and hardcore defendants of the democratic process). And the few pundits that might have squandered on it, make sure to keep their distance for it is fascism or it is dismissed at the grounds of being a western doctrine. Never was the term mentioned once in my twelve years of schooling; though no stones were left unturned in teaching us the benefits of minimum wage laws, the great deeds of the Mughals, the French Revolution, the Russian Revolution and so forth.
The wide acceptance (especially among the youth) of this preconceived idea is the consequence of the left’s dominance in the culture war in the last few decades. The media, movie industries, music industries, writers, or any other field of art and unmistakably, the academia, worldwide, have become leftist bastions. Most prestigious awards are now in hands of radical advocates of the left. The Oscars, the Pulitzer, the Golden Globes, the Grammys, the Ramon Magsaysay and the list goes on; are all inclined towards the left (some more than others) which is clearly evident from their recent list of winners. The purpose of all this of course is to diminish, devalue and demotivate conservative voices. And more importantly, to use these institutions to preach leftist propaganda.
One of the things (out of many) that the left has been quite successful at doing is to blur the lines between conservatism and far right-wing philosophies. One of the primary benefits of muddling the distinctions is that it stretches the grounds for criticism. Now they get to blame conservatives for not only everything they think is wrong with it but also everything wrong with the right in general. This automatically gives them (the left) more lines to twist, more people to blame, more rhetoric to misinterpret and more stuff to play with.
One of the things that has been noticeable is that it is fairly easy to distinguish and box out the radicals on the right from the moderates. But that same process of separating the radicals and moderates seems much harder when it comes to the left. The reason (or at least a part of it) behind this is also partially the answer as to why it is that communism (which has killed millions more than fascism) still enjoys a much better reputation than fascism (not that fascism should be celebrated but that communism should not be). An apt metaphor would be, topping a rotten bread with lots of cheese so that the person you serve it to doesn’t notice, but experiences the same harm as he would anyway. In a manner no different, the average consumer of politics is drawn into leftism; an ideology of tyranny and force, with a gracious topping of equality, diversity, compassion and goodwill.
Conservatives have done a great disservice to themselves and everyone by letting one institution after another slip out of their hands, for so long. It is essential, in order to take control back of where society is and should be headed, to get a grip on the culture and to take back these institutions (especially art and academia). In an age where social liberalism and secularism rules the narrative and decides the verdict, does the true potential and more importantly, the need for conservatism lies. The fight won’t be easy, but it has to be fought.
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