Rules For Conservative RadicalsThe left has mastered the art of the pressure campaign. It's time the right learned from them.
MAY 6, 2022
DAVID HINES
After progressive activists pushed Disney to speak out against Florida’s new education law, conservatives turned new ire on the Mouse. Of course, conservatives irate at a company that declares itself against them is nothing new; what was new this time around was the fact that somebody with power did something about it, and inflicted an actual material loss on Disney.
The Florida legislature passed a bill stripping Disney of the special-district status that provided them extraordinary powers over their property in Florida, and Governor Ron DeSantis signed it. Some establishment conservatives promptly criticized this action, even though Florida’s ending a market distortion by curtailing special treatment for a particular corporation is the sort of thing conservatives generally support. Disney’s lawyers, for their part, countered that Florida law did not allow Florida to do such a thing. Most of the rest of us, unaccustomed to legislators actually doing something to stand up for the power of their voters, saw it as a refreshing win.
For those of us who like winning, there are other factors to consider. One win doesn’t mean winning for all time, so if we want to win bigly, we have to make wins that lead to other wins. Inspiring examples aren’t always broadly reproducible. So, as always, we need to look in the mirror and see what we can learn.
Righties tend to be punitive rather than coercive. And Righties are impatient: If somebody hits us, we want to hit back, and we want to hit back right now. The challenge is making a hit against one enemy work pour encourager les autres. An ability to exploit unique vulnerabilities doesn’t always translate to being perceived as having general strength, because unique vulnerabilities are, well, unique; not everyone will be vulnerable in the same way. When Delta caved to gun-control activists and ended a minor deal for NRA members, for example, backlash from NRA members and allied legislators cost Delta a $40 million tax break. But that huge blow didn’t dissuade other corporations from caving to other lefty pressure campaigns, because few of them had $40 million tax breaks that were vulnerable at that particular time.
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What Lefties have that we on the right lack is a capacity for coercive action. Unlike punitive action, coercive action is forward-looking. The goal is less punishing the enemy than changing the enemy’s behavior, making them do what you want and not what you don’t, without having to take one on the chin. It is not about making threats; you don’t make a list of things you’re going to do to your enemy and then tell your enemy what you’re going to do UNLESS. That’s just telling your enemy the weak spots he needs to shore up. Coercive action isn’t about threatening the enemy; it is about picking your targets and acting, putting pressure on your enemy to make them do what you want.
So how do Lefties do that, and why are we struggling to do it?
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Source:
https://www.theamericanconservative.com/articles/a-guide-for-conservative-community-organizers/
