There’s a right way for the right to engage with left-wing rants | Opinion

If you consider yourself conservative, or right-wing, you are also ultra-religious, sexist, homophobic, racist, unsupportive, intolerant, a bad father and not very respectful of the environment.

Now that I have your attention, I’ll say that if you are not careful, use your words carefully and present a reasoned response in the face of provocations from the left, you might end up in a place that does not belong to you.

I’ve written 10 commandments for conservative politicians and analysts so they are not trapped in progressives’ debates disseminated in the media.

1. On abortion, the left caricatures the adversary. Faced with reasoned, reflective explanations, someone will appear on the news screaming and carrying a cross. Moral debates are personal, but these are always rigged by the same side. It is a game with marked cards that is only played when it suits the left. The smartest thing to do is get up from the table.

2. Questioning what your 6-year-old son is taught about sex and relationships does not make you homophobic or restrict rights of LGBTQ people. But, be careful, advocates want to brand you as a hater.

3. You defend equality between men and women but you do not align with feminists. They will put you in the trap of quotas. Explain yourself well and argue meritocracy against imposition.

4. You want immigrants from other countries to enter the United States in an orderly manner, in accordance to the needs of the labor market. But you are not xenophobic. You are also an immigrant and have earned a place in the country with your efforts.

5. The Republican Party is anti-Hispanic. Long before Univision and Telemundo cooked up this invention, Ronald Reagan honored successful Hispanics in the White House. “Hispanics are conservative, but they don’t know it yet,” Reagan said in his 1984 re-election campaign. Some still don’t.

6. The left takes care of the poor while the right gives them alms. We must dismantle this fallacy. Government aid and NGO donations perpetuate poverty, generating captive votes. We must drive home the point that capitalism offers opportunities to progress and generate wealth through individual effort.

7. Conservatism is synonymous with authoritarianism. That’s laughable when you see that it’s the populist governments of Latin America that are meddling in people’s lives, controlling the judiciary and limiting the role of the independent media. We end up seeing democratic leaders supporting radical leftist leaders like Petro or Lula.

8. Parents, not states or governments, are responsible for their children. Do not give in to counter-arguments. It is at the root of conservative thought. And by the way, let’s advocate that our children be educated in schools, fostering a critical spirit without imposing any ideology.

9. The right has turned healthcare into a business. Privatizing public services of any kind seeks to improve the quality of the good that people receive. It must be argued that private management, by nature, works better than that which depends on governments and does not mean that there are no controls.

10. Do not be alarmist about the climate, do not twist the facts to end up preaching that the end of the world is near. The love of nature or concern for our planet is not the heritage of Greta Thunberg or Al Gore. Let’s call things by their name and defend the balance between progress and respect for the environment.

These topics rarely reflect citizens’ true concerns. Perhaps if more cunning had been used when putting these issues on the table, the results of many midterm elections would have been different.

It can be a good lesson for the 2024 presidential elections.

Manuel Aguilera is digital managing editor of Americano Media. He is former executive editor for Univision, Diario Las Americas and elmundo.es/america.