Republicans, conservatives, libertarians and people of traditional faith love to whine about the policies they believe are destroying the America they love. “Isn’t it just awful what the liberals and the far left have done to our nation with their socialist policies?” they say to each other, wringing their hands, before going about their daily lives.
After the 2020 election — legally won by President Biden — egged on by former President Trump and some of his loyalists, their cry became “Look what the far-left media and its allies in Big Tech did to us!”
All this has been heaped upon their constant complaints about the “disgraceful far-left bias in the media, academia, entertainment” and, of late, “science and medicine.”
Since before I entered the Reagan White House in 1987, I have been listening to such incessant whining. “Poor us,” they cry, “We Americans who believe in God, the rule of law, sovereign and protected borders, a strong military, smaller government, lower taxes and personal accountability. What are we to do in the face of such unfairness?”
What they generally do is howl at the moon.
If Republicans, conservatives and people of traditional faith truly believe the left has come to dominate the media, entertainment, academia, science and medicine, then they should take steps to change that.
Almost a quarter-century ago, I sat down with my old boss, former Sen. Bob Dole of Kansas, to discuss this reality and the political and power-balancing enigma. Back then, long before tech giants Google, Amazon, Facebook, Twitter and YouTube came to dominate society, Dole — the former Senate majority leader and Republican presidential and vice presidential nominee — was honestly astounded that more ultrawealthy Republicans and conservatives were not getting into the media and entertainment fields. What we were told then was that those fields either did not fit their “business models” or that they might adversely affect their “bottom lines.”
As Dole and I discussed, common sense and pragmatism dictate that not having a voice in the largest megaphones of our nation — the media, entertainment and academia — is a losing strategy destined to create negative consequences for those trying to advance conservative or faith-based thought or arguments.
It can most certainly be argued that, for the past few decades, the left has come to dominate these fields, as well as science and medicine. And in some ways, liberals should be congratulated for achieving such dominance. That said, none of it happened in a vacuum or in the dead of night. It was all done with everyone’s eyes wide open — including people who later morphed into complainers about the “unfairness of it all” but who voluntarily chose to do nothing at the time. For whatever reason, they looked away while those on the left went about their business creating amazing high-tech achievements such as Google, Amazon and social media platforms.
Now, some on the right want to scream, “How dare those liberal entrepreneurs espouse the political or ideological thoughts they believe in, on sites they created, while blocking some they disagree with!” Ah, but isn’t it basic human nature to exercise control over a private company in which one has invested his or her blood, sweat and tears to create?
The last time I checked, there were thousands of Republican, conservative, libertarian and traditional faith-based millionaires, multimillionaires and billionaires who have amassed collective wealth exceeding $1 trillion. Surely that’s enough money to invest in a few newspapers, fund television networks, start a few universities or create some Big Tech sites of their own.
It’s time for the right to stop playing victim and put their money where they swear their values lie. If not, those who are complaining should put a cork in it.
Douglas MacKinnon, a political and communications consultant, was a writer in the White House for Presidents Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush, and former special assistant for policy and communications at the Pentagon during the last three years of the Bush administration.