“But he fights” was a common refrain from many of the decibilically vociferous calls in the MAGA movement, and it is a sentiment raucously championed by many on the “new right”, or as some call themselves, the “common good conservatives”, “national conservatives”, or simply those who aren’t the so-called “conservatives”. Indeed many, if not most, of these individuals bemoan “principles” (a word they treat as a pejorative) and blame people who hold them in the current political climate for being the “surrender caucus” who insist on “fighting with one hand tied behind their back”, assuming they are not outright accused of treason and only wanting to “go to cocktail parties”. That this is shortsighted will become evident, if it isn’t already, but it is also historically illiterate, and while ignorance is never an excuse, that some know better but repeat the “fighting” trope does them no favor. When you hear what their fighting plan is, it usually involves the “underpants gnomes” logic (without the manifest sensibility):
- Fight!!1!
- ???
- Hear the lamentations of their women (or some transgender/feminist variation thereof).
This, of course, ignores the question, for which your humble author begs, so as to speak, of “what then”? This is the question that seems perpetually side-stepped. Yes, you fight for victory, but what is that victory beyond the defeat of the enemy a la mode?
Much of the argument that justifies “fighting” by tossing aside all rules and principles, is that they will be able to fight with full force against an enemy who is not bound by the rules that the “fighters” seem to want to break. First of all, this is fallacious on its face. The actual rule of law, even if bent, bruised, ignored, avoided, or poked to sieve still stands, and not only provides a way back from those on the Left would erase, but a perpetual obstacle to them that clarifies what we must protect and why it is so important to protect it, but also who we must defend it against. The enemy wants those principles destroyed. Indeed, that is their main goal, and those disdained principles now face a co-belligerent against them, abet in the name of the policy or cultural consequences that those principles birthed, or at least midwifed. Why, if you defend principles, you’d almost be accused of siding with the devil…
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