As the One Ring of Power from Tolkien’s Middle Earth answers only to Sauron, divisive group politics—the system of political grievance-mongering and favoritism based on race/sex/protected-class—can only deftly be wielded by wicked men, by radicals. Splintering and factionalizing men, turning brother against brother, is hateful connivance. Branding people indelibly with a pre-fabricated identity and de-individualizing them due to a singular attribute is an affront to human dignity, it’s an affront to free will. Good men cannot, without losing their souls in the process, embrace such a disordered method. There’s no such thing as a man that’s wicked in only one respect, since gravely disordered conduct in a particular instance is a mere symptom of a more fundamental problem with the will. “For whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles at just one point is guilty of breaking all of it” (Jas 2:10). So, by definition, the retrograde has no recourse to divisive group politics. The minute he attempts to wield them, he ceases to be a retrograde, just like men who die wearing one of the rings forged by Sauron cease to be men and become wraiths.
Application bears out the foolishness of any retrograde dalliances with divisive group politics. First of all, impelled as retrogrades are to refrain from doing evil so that good may come of it, they will always be at a comparative disadvantage with wicked men who are willing to employ unscrupulous political stratagems in furtherance of crooked ends. So, even in the event that the retrograde takes leave of his senses to the point where he contemplates exploring the gloomy method of race/sex/protected-class pandering, he will not be able to wield such politics to the fullest extent, his hand being stayed by his lingering sense of compunction.
In other words, we will never be able to out-radical radicals; we’ll never be able to pay a higher ransom for votes than they. Radicals are not hamstrung by ethics in their methods the way retrogrades are. For radicals, the ends justify the means. Putting aside for now the tension of the following hypotheticals with constitutionalism, subsidiarity, and justice, let’s suppose that the retrograde were, in an effort at ingratiation, to offer to black Americans reparations for the horrors of slavery; radicals, being unmoored from moral concerns, would simply offer greater reparations. Supposing retrogrades offered a generous package of welfare benefits to illegal immigrants, radicals would simply offer more welfare benefits. Supposing retrogrades offered guaranteed paid maternity leave for working mothers, radicals would simply offer more paid leave. And if retrogrades should attempt to keep pace with radicals in their purchasing of allegiance, then we will have become, for all intents and purposes, indistinguishable from the very ideologues that we claim to oppose. We cannot afford to try to beat radicals at their own cynical game. To do so would mean forfeiting our souls and conceding the very principles that make our movement great.
Neither may we have recourse to the twin swords of despair and envy, which play an integral role in advancing divisive group politics. The diabolical logic behind radicals’ adherence to the politics of despair and envy is rather plain. We clearly live in a pluralistic society, one composed of numerous race/sex/protected-class groups with varying interests. So, if radicals can convince a sufficient number of such groups that their interests are in conflict and competition with the interests of one collective bogeyman (i.e., the much maligned “straight, white male”), then radicals can create an artificial cohesion between the various race/sex/protected-class groups by mobilizing them against the bogeyman group. It’s the old adage “the enemy of my enemy is my friend.”
If radicals can convince the race/sex/protected-class groups that they’re dedicated to serving the groups’ interests, then the groups will have been consolidated into a dependable radical voting bloc. If the membership in the groups eventually eclipses the membership in the bogeyman group, then radicals will forever hold the reins of power. This is why radicals want to flood the country with illegal aliens; it’s why they’re encouraging more people to come out of the closet as “gay”; it’s why they’re constantly telling blacks the lie that racism is still widespread; it’s why they’re against assimilation and aspirations for a trans-racial national identity; it’s why they’re constantly telling women that retrogrades want to strip them of civil rights. They need to grow their coalition so that, in the aggregate, it becomes more numerous than the retrograde bloc. This is how radicals grow and mollify their base: at the expense of the unity and confraternity of the nation. In their lust for power, radicals need to divide the country so that they can vanquish the old order, represented in caricature by the straight, white male.
But retrogrades may not do this in reverse—we have too much honor. We are prohibited, in conscience, from drawing on the schadenfreude and resentment that the “have-nots” harbor for the “haves.” We are prohibited from stoking provincial inter-race and inter-sex rivalries in an attempt to benefit our political cause; we’re prohibited from floating ourselves on the chests of drowning men. The retrograde may not incite his brothers against one another, attempting to build unity through division. We may not rob Peter to pay Paul in order to win hearts and minds. A faction bound together only by the hatred of a common enemy is dysfunctional to the core.
While the pessimistic strategy of incitement does work to produce cheap political wins (it’s why radicals use this method), the morally-upright retrograde method is a juggernaut in its own right. Our strength lies in the fact that our worldview is the correct one, and in the fact that truth is on our side. The human intellect was made by God so that men could come to know truth. The intellect, therefore, has a natural affinity for the truth. For mankind, truth is intrinsically attractive, attractive per se. Those opposed to truth have to use cheap gimmicks and deception of every stripe to attract followers. But not retrogrades. All we need is a platform from which to speak and ready ears and open hearts in our listeners. If retrogrades speak the truth boldly, never being cowed into silence, never allowing radicals to dictate what we can and can’t say, we will win the culture and retain our honor in the process. In the end, tawdry gimmicks are no match for gritty substance.