The Ideological Oxymoron

The Strange Urge to Impose What Does Not Work

Photo by Jason Hogan on Unsplash

One of the deepest frustrations in our public life today is the repeated tendency of certain ideological movements to champion policies that have failed repeatedly, and to demand that those failed policies be imposed on everyone else. It is a perplexing yet persistent dynamic. The very ideas that have eroded communities, stunted economies, or strained social cohesion are often the same ideas their advocates are most eager to mandate for others. The question that should guide any moral or political philosophy is simple. Does it work? Does it uplift the human spirit? Does it produce the fruit of human flourishing? Does it protect individual liberty?

Conservatism, at its best, begins with humility. As a political ideology, it recognizes the limits of human engineering and is highly skeptical of the dangers of grand schemes that attempt to redesign human nature. It is grounded in the conviction that freedom is not only the birthright of every person, but also the very soil in which responsibility, creativity, and prosperity grow. A free people can always rise above their circumstances. A coerced people can only comply with mediocrity.

Yet, even though I believe conservatism is the surest path to a thriving society, I do not wake each morning with a burning desire to force my worldview onto my neighbor. Why? Because freedom is not freedom if it requires compulsion.

Builders guide with evidence, utopians push with ideology

One of the clearest distinctions between the political right and the political left is the difference between exporting an idea because it works and exporting an idea because it aligns with a desired ideological narrative.

True conservatives look to history, tradition, natural law, and the long arc of human experience. When conservatives champion a policy, it is usually because it has produced real fruit in real places across many generations. Limited government has birthed innovation. Stable families have nurtured responsible citizens. Strong borders have preserved stability. Faith and morality have restrained vice and elevated virtue. When conservatives say, “you might want to try this”, it is because the seed has already proven to bear good fruit.

But many on the political left operate differently. They often promote policies not because they have worked, but because they feel morally or ideologically appealing. Consider the examples we see repeated across the nation. Progressive cities enact high taxation, heavy regulation, lenient crime policies, and expansive social experiments. These communities then suffer the predictable consequences: rising crime, deteriorating schools, economic stagnation, and fraying civic bonds. And what happens next? People flee to conservative states seeking refuge. Yet many then vote for the very same policies that precipitated their departure.

It is the political version of planting weeds in a fresh garden and then wondering why the tomatoes keep dying.

The migration paradox: leaving failure while spreading failure

This phenomenon is not limited to American domestic politics. Around the world we see parallel dynamics in the movement of people across borders. Individuals flee countries governed by oppressive or dysfunctional ideologies. Yet some arrive in the West hoping to replicate the very cultural or political structures that failed them back home.

Take, for instance, ideologies that seek to merge religious authority with political power in ways that strip women and minorities of their dignity, agency, and rights. Many who escape these systems understandably seek safety and opportunity. But a subset attempts to recreate the very governance models that produced oppression in the first place. We must be clear. The problem is not that all members of a certain religion or culture share one monolithic set of views. They do not. The problem is that certain ideological strains seek to impose their doctrines on society by force of law. And wherever these doctrines have been implemented, they have not produced flourishing. They have produced fear and destruction.

Ideas can be like viruses. Healthy ideas strengthen the body politic, while destructive ideas spread harm if not confronted early with truth and courage. The issue is not about people as individuals. Every person carries the dignity of being made in the image of God. The issue is about the principles and systems that shape societies. Some systems liberate. Others suffocate.