Winning is better than losing. As obvious as that sounds, a surprising number of people in the conservative movement believe the opposite.

During the 2016 election and again four years later, Donald Trump’s Republican opponents said that conservatives in general and populists in particular should want Trump to lose, on the grounds that he would surely bring discredit on our ideas if he won.

When the Dobbs draft majority opinion was leaked, many conservatives wagged their fingers and warned, “Be careful what you wish for.” As they saw it, any pro-life victory would energize liberals going into the midterms, rescuing Democrats in a cycle when they otherwise stood to be wiped out.

Hogwash, we say. Winning is better than losing. Victory brings momentum; defeat brings disaffection and lethargy.

The question to ask now that Roe v. Wade has been overturned is not What will the blowback be, but: What crackpot Warren Court monstrosity can we overturn next?

So many pillars of the left’s dominance rest on the shaky foundation of a single Supreme Court ruling. 

Overturn Papachristou v. City of Jacksonville (1972), and cities could bring back vagrancy laws and turn back the rising tide of urban homelessness.

Overturn U.S. v. Wong Kim Ark (1898), and we could get rid of the historical aberration of birthright citizenship, which is so often taken advantage of. 

Overturn Plyler v. Doe (1981), and governors would be able to keep illegal immigrants from overburdening government services like education, which they now enjoy on the same basis as the citizens who pay for those services with their tax dollars. 

Overturn Griggs v. Duke Power (1971), and the “woke” bureaucrats who use civil rights law to enforce critical race theory universally would be robbed of their power. The bloated higher-education sector would take a blow, too.

The list goes on. Dobbs showed us what was possible. Now is the time to think big.

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Speaking of woke bureaucrats, Andrew Cuff did extensive investigative reporting to bring us the hidden truth about a recent episode at Saint Vincent College where professors clashed with a small but powerful clique of administrators in thrall to the latest left-wing trends, from critical race theory to Covid-19. Those administrators are destroying everything that makes Saint Vincent special, a jewel of Catholic education in blue-collar Pennsylvania, and turning into just another woke liberal arts school.

Over the border in Ohio, Garrison Keillor recently performed a show in his first live tour since getting his name dragged through the mud by various female former coworkers—one of whom accused him of, sit down before you read further, writing a risqué limerick on a white board. TAC contributor Peter Tonguette was on hand to watch Keillor’s comeback. He reports that getting canceled seems to have left the radio host a liberated man. 

Did you know that the founder of Wicca was a fan of Enoch Powell? Wicca’s modern crystal-worshiping devotees have no idea. It’s the sort of fact that only Michael Warren Davis would know. His book review on the reactionary origins of modern paganism can be read in this issue’s Arts & Letters section. Michael was just made a contributing editor at TAC, so you can look forward to enjoying more such esoterica from him on a regular basis. Congratulations, Michael.