Opinion: Welcome to the new conservative strategy – playing to win

By Juanma Badenas*

(Opinion) Seeing, but more importantly hearing, Steve Bannon in front of a completely entranced audience is one of the greatest spectacles a conservative can witness.

Bannon has become a right-wing revolutionary and thus the worst enemy of the international left.

Until he emerged, the right was an entelechy, striving only not to make as many mistakes as the left and to manage the economy in a non-ruinous way.

The pretense of right-wing moderation was nothing more than a ridiculous attempt by a left that has been the hegemonic ideology since the end of World War II to forgive itself for existing.

Its most pathetic example was David Cameron’s compassionate conservatism, which, not surprisingly, inspired Nigel Farage and drove the British to Brexit.

Watch Steve Bannon’s speech (starting minute 2.10)

The so-called Spanish right was also worse than compassionate until Vox came along; it was shameful.

It was so afraid of being called conservative that it was not even liberal.

The Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), held last August in Dallas, Texas, USA, featured exceptional speakers such as Sarah Palin, Nigel Farage, Viktor Orbán, and even Donald Trump himself.

But if I had to pick just one, I would undoubtedly choose Bannon.

Above all, Orbán’s speech has the value of a realized model. It could be summed up in one sentence: self-confidence.

The key to Hungarian success, he said, lies in “speaking and representing the truth, even if that means resisting attacks from half the world.”

In his opinion, you cannot win without enthusiasm, nor half-heartedly.

This is not only what Orbán stands for.

In my opinion, it is also perseverance and persistence.

It has taken him some time to get to where his homeland is now: the first government in alliance with another party, the Hungarian Democratic Forum (MDF), between 1998 and 2002, and, most importantly, four electoral victories for his own party (Fidesz) alone since 2010.

Therefore, no one should expect the situation in countries as corrupt as Spain to change in less than eight or ten years.

The lesson Orbán conveys by example (and not by words) is that conservatism must come to power as soon as possible (with the most effective discourse and means), because only then can it initiate the necessary changes to prevent everything from going down the drain.

(Hungary’s Viktor Orbán)

This last point is somewhat related to Bannon’s speech, which began with the statement that “we are at war, a political and ideological war.”

In his view, between the House elections on Nov. 8 and the presidential election in 2024, Americans may have “the last chance to prevent the destruction of their republic.”

According to Bannon, the country has been taken over by Chinese-style elites consisting of a “mixture of state capitalism and authoritarianism.”

Thanks to the Republican laissez-faire of the past, the administration of the American state has become a kind of Leviathan, which some call the “deep state” or, as Trump puts it, a “swamp” that needs to be eliminated “brick by brick.”

I stand by the latter phrase, “which must be dismantled brick by brick,” as a political strategy of patriotism for years and even decades to come.

Therefore, as I said, it is urgent to seize power as soon as possible (I don’t know if with too many misgivings), because of the ideological war in which national sovereignty may perish, and with it, the systems of democratic rights and freedoms, will not be won simply by winning an election.

It will require, as Orbán teaches us, persistence and patience to dismantle, brick by brick, the perverse cultural edifice in which they want to force us to live.

It is worth watching, again and again, the 2018 documentary ‘American Dharma’ by Errol Morris, in which he interviews Steve Bannon at length.

(Official trailer of ‘American Dharma’)

As early as four years ago, Bannon predicted the frightening situation we could be heading toward.

And although his speech and interview refer directly to the United States, it should be remembered that Europe is nothing but the lapdog of the U.S. government as long as its president is not Donald Trump.

We are back to where we were in 2020 when Biden took on Trump.

At stake are two worldviews: the globalist-statist-authoritarian versus the patriotic and democratic of individual nations.

CPAC in Texas was a strategic turning point for all conservatives.

Until now, each national patriotic movement, unlike leftist globalism, has acted in isolation and on its own, which is very much in keeping with the national character of conservatives.

The new strategy involves structuring an international movement in which conservatives from each nation can help each other.

Steve Bannon already has an undisputed place in this global movement, if only from a strategic and inspirational point of view.

* Juanma Badenas is Professor of Civil Law, member of the Royal Academy of Overseas Sciences of Belgium, essayist and regular contributor to various national and international media, including El Mundo, El Español, El Manifiesto and The European Conservative.

His latest books are “La Derecha. La imprescindible aportación de la Derecha a la sociedad actual”, Almuzara (2020) and “Contra la corrección política”, Ediciones Insólitas (2021).

He has also served as a magistrate and university rector and is currently an advisor to public and private organizations.