In Defense Of ‘Owning The Libs’

As Edmund Burke famously observed, “Conservatism is when something triggers the libs, and the more the libs are triggered, the more conservatismer it is.” That insight comes from Reflections on the Revolution in France, or A Philosophical Enquiry into the Origin of Our Ideas of the Sublime and Beautiful, or a funny Internet meme—one of those three, I can’t quite remember which. In any case, U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley urges caution. In a speech to students at Turning Point USA’s High School Leadership Summit, Haley asked, “Raise your hand if you’ve ever posted anything online to quote-unquote ‘own the libs.’” When presumably every person in the room raised his hand, she warned:

I know that it’s fun and that it can feel good, but step back and think about what you’re accomplishing when you do this — are you persuading anyone? Who are you persuading? We’ve all been guilty of it at some point or another, but this kind of speech isn’t leadership — it’s the exact opposite. Real leadership is about persuasion, it’s about movement, it’s bringing people around to your point of view. Not by shouting them down, but by showing them how it is in their best interest to see things the way you do.