As America becomes more secular and pluralistic, conservatives are fighting a rearguard battle to protect their rights to speak, worship, and participate in the public square. Some have suggested that conservatives isolate themselves, promising not to offend if left alone. At the same time, ascendant liberals are seizing the opportunity to consolidate their hold on cultural institutions. They are abandoning commitments to open debate and tolerance for minority viewpoints. History is important in this conversation.
While conservatives proudly proclaimed America’s Judeo-Christian heritage, underlying its unique history and future success, liberals saw the nation’s strength in diversity and the protection of individual rights. Conservatives highlighted the Founding Fathers’ religious beliefs, while liberals emphasized their rejection of divine rule and the enlightenment embrace of reason, natural law, self-evident truths, and universal rights.
Today, however, liberals promote a particular notion of America — one devoted to redistribution to address past grievances based on gender, sexual orientation, and race. Conservatives are left largely alone to fight for neutrality and open debate. Liberals have harnessed universities, media, and popular entertainment to transform America’s culture. Universities have come a long way since Harvard University was founded to train Christian ministers. Professors are more likely to defend Marxism than Christianity, free market economics, or Western civilization. Liberal bias in education and the media has hardened to intolerance for opposing viewpoints. Ideological diversity and curiosity are often missing in the places they should be nurtured.
Consider how the University of Chicago sparked fierce debate over a free speech code that reiterated its commitment to open debate as the basis for education. While professors proudly promoted countercultural viewpoints during the Vietnam War and the Cold War, the same schools now promote speech codes, safe spaces, and other restrictions on the free exchange of ideas.
Media outlets have anointed themselves as the arbiters of truth and accountability, but they have abandoned objectivity. They view themselves as social justice combatants. They’ve decided neutrality isn’t just tedious but actually abhorrent. In their minds, neutrality is an accessory to evident systemic inequity. Rather than simply reporting the news, they congratulate themselves for censuring those with discordant views.
This leads to absurd scenarios, including what happened when a group of intellectuals signed a statement last year celebrating free speech and denouncing cancel culture. Though it was signed by prominent liberals including Salman Rushdie, Gloria Steinem, and Noam Chomsky, even this benign gesture sparked fierce online backlash within the media elite. Vox reporters took great pains to say they weren’t personally denouncing Vox writer Matt Yglesias for signing the letter — before then doing so. After one professor retracted her endorsement due to the beliefs of other signatories, Malcolm Gladwell tartly noted that that was the point of the letter.
The new media have not been kinder to conservatives, nor any less hypocritical. Google threatened the Federalist with sanctions for not policing its readers’ comments, though Google does not hold itself to the same standard. Facebook and Twitter have come under fire for censoring former President Donald Trump while ignoring the offensive content of others, such as senior officials from the Chinese Communist Party. Though private companies have a right to their biases, these platforms enjoy market dominance and government-granted liability protection. Sens. Ted Cruz and Josh Hawley are demanding they be neutral to maintain these advantages.
Then we see corporate America’s fear of offending liberal constituencies and its growing indifference to conservative boycotts. Consumer-facing brands Nike and Disney rush to partner with Colin Kaepernick, even as he denounces the Fourth of July as a “celebration of white supremacy.” The NFL reversed its policy requiring players to stand for the national anthem. The NBA allowed players to adorn their jerseys with social justice slogans and painted “Black Lives Matter” along the courts.
But even if liberals are confident that the pendulum will not swing back, they should worry that the mobs they have unleashed will turn on them. As the goal posts are continually moved leftward, today’s heroic liberal is tomorrow’s villain. Conservatives should continue fighting for liberty, but they should also continue working to convert the culture through persuasion. President Ronald Reagan cited John Winthrop’s invocation of Scripture to describe America as a shining “city on a hill” at the beginning and end of his administration. Winthrop was warning his fellow Puritans of the need to abide by their covenant with God, lest their sins be exposed. The more optimistic Reagan described a strong, welcoming nation, open to all regardless of creed or color. Conservatives can embrace both traditions.
Bobby Jindal (@BobbyJindal) was the governor of Louisiana from 2008 to 2016 and a candidate for the 2016 Republican presidential nomination.
