FreedomWorks Foundation Content

Limiting Government Through the Culture War

The speeches at FreePAC in Dallas July 26 will have a lasting impact on the movement for limited government. Each was inspirational and important, but one stands out among the others for the insight that political victories are a result of cultural change. 

The only way to limit government is with a limiting culture.

You can watch the rest of the amazing FreePAC speeches from the links below:

  • Richard Mourdock made me proud to have done a small part to help him win the Indiana US Senate nomination
  • Sen Mike Lee reminded me that the Constitution is worth fighting for
  • Sen Rand Paul built the case against Obamacare
  • Dean Clancy gave the action plan for Obamacare repeal
  • Sen Jim DeMint told us of the battle to elect conservatives to the Senate
  • Ted Cruz showed why he is a once-in-a-generation conservative voice
  • Rev. C. L. Bryant inspired and brought the crowd to its feet
  • Stephen Kruiser said the war will not be won with one election
  • Deneen Borelli awed the crowd and stole the show with her no-nonsense dismissal of liberalism
  • Dana Loesch indicted the legacy media, 
  • Glenn Beck called this the beginning of a worldwide movement for freedom

The most important speech at FreePac, however, was Matt Kibbe telling the assembled leaders for freedom “Politics is not enough,” as Kibbe said.”We must take over every aspect of our culture if we’re going to take our country back.”

Restoring freedom and limiting government can not be accomplished just with political engagement or even by focusing on good policy. We must engage and retake our culture and its institutions. 

The only way to limit government is to restore a culture that insists it be limited. Further, that culture must provide a way to meet the needs of society currently met by big government. 

Churches must insist themselves from their own resources and with their own efforts on providing for the needs of their members, knowing that when government meets those needs, it pushes the wider Church itself to the sidelines, like a sad former star quarterback who insists he can still play. 

We must, in the words of Chris Loesch to me at FreePAC, “Back talented acts, actors and directors, not just conservatives who happen to have acts. Otherwise we’re the same as the left.” 

Kibbe said, “We have to take over Hollywood. We have to take over the media. We have to take over the culture.”

 

Diverse conservative voices such as Rick Santorum, Andrew Breitbart, Sarah Palin and Matt Kibbe all now are on record saying that the real battleground for conservatives and libertarians is the culture. Each of them said it in a different way and for different reasons, but the nub of it is that our politics reflects the attitude of the people, not the other way around.

We chastise politicians for not standing up for our ideals, yet they are mere reflections of their job descriptions. They are supposed to represent their constitutents, and they cannot be expected to fight the larger culture when doing so.

We need to change our culture if we have a hope of changing our politics. 

That starts when you don’t accept a media narrative in a casual conversation. It continues when you interact online. Highlight the stories you want to read more about.

Insist that the people around you — both online and in daily life — accept the validity of your viewpoint, and eventually your viewpoint will become accepted.