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GOP preach selective self-discipline | detnews.com | The Detroit News
"In his essay "Why the GOP Can't Win With Minorities," conservative scholar Shelby Steele almost nails the half-question in the title. An African-American, Steele contrasts the "moral activism" of liberals with conservative calls for personal discipline.
He notes that blacks and Hispanics often poll conservative on social issues and that many Great Society programs meant to help them were obvious failures or worse. Yet conservatism can't seem to gain much traction with these groups.
Steele's explanation: Blacks especially are "often born into grievance-focused identities," a response to four centuries of racial persecution. School busing and other liberal attempts at social engineering at least acknowledge that mistreatment. The conservative emphasis on self-control does not.
"Even failed moral activism is redemptive -- and thus a source of moral authority and power," Steele writes. But "conservatism stands flat-footed with only discipline to offer."
Missing in this fine analysis is recognition of what happens when conservative politics takes over from conservative theory. The call for more individual discipline is compelling to most everyone. But in the political reality, the demands for discipline tend to rise the poorer and darker the individual. And the politicians are not above nurturing grievances among working whites by flogging racial preferences that don't exist. "
"In his essay "Why the GOP Can't Win With Minorities," conservative scholar Shelby Steele almost nails the half-question in the title. An African-American, Steele contrasts the "moral activism" of liberals with conservative calls for personal discipline.
He notes that blacks and Hispanics often poll conservative on social issues and that many Great Society programs meant to help them were obvious failures or worse. Yet conservatism can't seem to gain much traction with these groups.
Steele's explanation: Blacks especially are "often born into grievance-focused identities," a response to four centuries of racial persecution. School busing and other liberal attempts at social engineering at least acknowledge that mistreatment. The conservative emphasis on self-control does not.
"Even failed moral activism is redemptive -- and thus a source of moral authority and power," Steele writes. But "conservatism stands flat-footed with only discipline to offer."
Missing in this fine analysis is recognition of what happens when conservative politics takes over from conservative theory. The call for more individual discipline is compelling to most everyone. But in the political reality, the demands for discipline tend to rise the poorer and darker the individual. And the politicians are not above nurturing grievances among working whites by flogging racial preferences that don't exist. "
