Sunday, Apr. 22, 2001
The Busiest Man in the White House

http://www.time.com The Integration of Theory and Practice: A Program for the New
Traditionalist Movement

The following is a recent presentation by Karl Rove, a senior Bush advisor, to a gathering of like-minded conservatives hosted by Paul Weyrich.  I'd  really appreciate hearing all of your reactions to it.  Nice to see you've joined us again, Richard.

David

 This essay is based on the belief that the truth of an idea is not the
primary reason for its acceptance. Far more important is the energy and
dedication of the idea's promoters--in other words, the individuals
composing a social or political movement...

We must, as Mr. Weyrich has suggested, develop a network of parallel
cultural institutions existing side-by-side with the dominant leftist
cultural institutions. The building and promotion of these institutions
will require the development of a movement that will not merely reform
the existing post-war conservative movement, but will in fact be forced
to supersede it--if it is to succeed at all--because it will pursue a
very different strategy and be premised on a very
different view of its role in society....

There will be three main stages in the unfolding of this movement. The
first stage will be devoted to the development of a highly motivated
elite able to coordinate future activities. The second stage will be
devoted to the development of institutions designed to make an impact on
the wider elite and a relatively small minority of the masses. The third
stage will involve changing the overall character of American popular
culture....

Our movement will be entirely destructive, and entirely constructive. We
will not try to reform the existing institutions. We only intend to
weaken them, and eventually destroy them. We will endeavor to knock our
opponents off-balance and unsettle them at every opportunity. All of our
constructive energies will be dedicated to the creation of our own
institutions....

We will maintain a constant barrage of criticism against the Left. We
will attack the very legitimacy of the Left. We will not give them a
moment's rest. We will endeavor to prove that the Left does not deserve
to hold sway over the heart and mind of a single American. We will offer
constant reminders that there is an alternative, there is a better way.

When people have had enough of the sickness and decay of today's
American culture, they will be embraced by and welcomed into the New
Traditionalist movement. The rejection of the existing society by the
people will thus be accomplished by pushing them and pulling them
simultaneously.

We will use guerrilla tactics to undermine the legitimacy of the
dominant regime...
We must create a countervailing force that is just as adept as the Left
at intimidating people and institutions that are used as tools of
left-wing activism but are not ideologically committed, such as
Hollywood celebrities, multinational
corporations, and university administrators. We must be feared, so that
they will think twice before opening their mouths...

We will be results-oriented rather than good intentions-oriented. Making
a good-faith effort and being ideologically sound will be less important
than advancing the goals of the movement...

There is no medium more conducive to propagandistic purposes than the
moving image, and our movement must learn to make use of this medium. A
skillfully produced motion picture or television documentary has
tremendous persuasive power...Rational arguments simply do not have this
power, and all arguments made in print tend to appeal to the rational,
critical faculties of the mind to a greater or lesser degree...
The visual image allows us to illustrate our beliefs and arguments to
our members
and others in highly compelling terms--we will be able to show all the
examples of
cultural decadence, irrationality and disingenuousness in public debate,
combined
with our commentary, selectively edited and arranged for maximum
impact...

We need more people with fire in the belly, and we need a message that
attracts those kinds of people....We must reframe this struggle as a
moral struggle, as a transcendent struggle, as a struggle between good
and evil. And we must be prepared to explain why this is so. We must
provide the evidence needed to prove this using images and simple
terms....

Some will argue that "conservatives" do not believe in apocalyptic
fervor. The reader should simply ask himself, is he happy with the state
of cultural conservatism in this country? If not, does he think it
likely that conditions will improve in the future by operating according
to the current rules? And if not, is he willing to witness the death of
true civilization in this country so that conservatism will not suffer
the ungentlemanly taint of "fervor"? If the answer to any of these
questions is yes, this movement will not appeal to the reader.
http://www.freecongress.org/centers/conservatism/traditionalist.htm