This essay is a part of The Right Way Forward, Restoring America’s new think tank debate series in which leading conservative institutions argue the defining questions of the post-Trump era. Read about the series here.
If the conservative movement is going to lead America to new heights in the next 250 years, its leaders must return to our roots, reject the victimhood mindset, and fully embrace what can be accomplished in a free society.
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Two hundred fifty years ago, Thomas Jefferson wrote the Declaration of Independence, which included a list of 27 grievances the American colonists had against King George. But those grievances were of a different nature than what is common in today’s discourse. Jefferson opposed specific actions by a tyrannical king and his occupying forces that sought subservience from the colonies. And unlike many who peddle grievances stemming from a mindset of victimhood today, the founding generation wasn’t asking for anything but the ability to self-govern and to be free of tyranny. After winning independence, Americans didn’t wallow in the past. They pushed forward and built the greatest republic the world has ever known.
Our nation’s history is marked by industrious, resourceful individuals from the Pilgrims arriving on the Mayflower, to the Founding Fathers devising our Constitution, to homesteaders settling America’s frontiers, to freed slaves embracing freedom and working to better themselves and their families.
When we look back, we should feel overwhelming gratitude for the nation we inherited, and when we look forward, we should be committed to ensuring that future generations also enjoy the blessings of liberty.
Many on the Left stoke grievance and envy for political gain. People such as Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) and New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani reject personal responsibility and scapegoat millionaires and billionaires for the existence of poverty and misfortune in America.
It’s nonsense, of course. Chances are, if you work in the private sector, wealthy people own and run the business that pays your salary. And, far from “not paying their fair share,” the top 1% of Americans pay roughly as much in income taxes as the bottom 95% combined. Countries that punish the rich end up with neither rich people, nor a strong middle class, nor a vibrant economy.
Blaming the rich for society’s misfortunes may be counterproductive, but for politicians, it’s an empowering lie. After all, who but the government has the legal authority to redistribute wealth?
In addition to class-based grievances, the Left also stokes grievances based on everything from identity to “climate justice.” Activism for aggrieved groups doesn’t make people’s lives better, though. It just convinces people that they lack agency for their own lives. There’s no surer path to failure than viewing yourself as a victim.
Unfortunately, the victimhood mindset has gained steam with the New Right.
Some fringe voices on the New Right blame Israel or Jews for every problem imaginable, spinning absurd tales about how a tiny group of people controls the world and caused events such as the global financial crisis, the 9/11 attacks, the Charlie Kirk assassination, attempts on President Donald Trump’s life, and moral decay in the West.
Others push the more mainstream (but still wrong) claim that America is declining economically because the rest of the world is ripping us off. But as the last year has demonstrated, putting up barriers to trade with friendly countries only drives up import prices and makes U.S. manufacturing less competitive.
Many young conservatives feel that they’ve been dealt a bad hand. And to be sure, young conservatives face challenges that previous generations didn’t. Growing up during the insanity of COVID-19 lockdowns and the woke agenda, it’s perhaps only natural that Generation Z is a bit jaded. But young Americans must channel that healthy skepticism toward seeking constructive reforms, not the defeatism of thinking that nebulous forces are stacked against them. After all, prior generations have faced serious challenges, from a bloody Civil War to a devastating Great Depression.
Both old and young Americans may feel a sense of grievance about what will be one of the defining issues of our time: an entitlement system that is barreling toward insolvency. Most older Americans view Social Security and Medicare as programs they’re fully entitled to because they paid into them. And in their working years, baby boomers did support retirees.
But without significant reforms, young Americans will be forced to shoulder a far weightier burden in supporting older generations in retirement as the ratio of workers per retiree plummets and as the cost of government-run healthcare soars.
Young Americans don’t even expect the programs to be around when they retire. Little wonder. In 30 years, the Congressional Budget Office projects spending on Social Security, Medicare, and interest on the debt will be double that of all other federal spending combined. The status quo is untenable, even if some forms of the programs are likely to survive.
When Congress is inevitably forced to enact needed reforms, demagogues will try to convince Americans that they’re victims. Indeed, there will be collateral damage because Americans entrusted their retirement to politicians who promised that future generations would sustain an unsustainable system forever.
LIBERAL POLICIES DON’T WORK EVEN WHEN REBRANDED AS “CONSERVATIVE”
Reform won’t be easy. If we look past the demagoguery though, we see the same story again and again, that these ills are the work of an overbearing government — from shutting down the economy during COVID-19 to overtaxing the paychecks of workers trying to build a family. Now is not the time to further embrace the false promises of even more government.
A victimhood mentality won’t get America past these challenges. Embracing personal responsibility and less government intrusion will.
Preston Brashers is a research fellow with the Plymouth Institute at Advancing American Freedom.
