The right is uncool

Do you want to be a dissident, or do you want to win?

The political right is a political failure. A political failure of catastrophic proportions.

Culturally, the occasional victory is enjoyed, but none with any true legacy. The right engages, daily, in an internecine culture war, without any true culture of its own outside of memes.

The right, in a cultural, youthful sense, holds a very small territory in the public imagination. There are no leaders, no cultural centres, no incentives to partake. In short, the right is uncool.

One may read my lamentations of the lack of cool, and roll eyes or scoff. But, this is not to be overlooked if any rightist movement is to succeed.

For too long our banner has been waved by Tory boys in ill-fitting suits and tweeds, Moseley cosplayers in black fatigues, and low-brow hordes in casuals.

The right is in no way lacking the handsome, erudite and well-dressed; there is wit, but diffidence in the face of leftist totality, and these types, in which I hope to include myself, are heard but not seen.

'Cool' as it were, is capable of remarkable sway in the mass consciousness. Blair and Obama were cool in their time, so much so that significant social and political shortcomings were overlooked.

If the right wishes to succeed, it must be cool. It's leaders and public faces must dress well, write well, speak with confidence and walk with a swagger. Without these qualities, there will be no escape from the thick woodlands of esoteric dissent. Without palatability - the sort of palatability provided in abundance by political suggestions, but not in cultural imagery - all that the right can hope to be is dissident.

Ask yourself this: do you want to be a dissident, or do you want to win?