I've been thinking a lot about long-term strategies for Catholics and other like-minded conservative Christians. We have an election coming up. We are constantly told that it is very important. It is. Praying the rosary daily will bring peace to our nation.

However, political solutions to non-political problems will only buy us time. The conservative infrastructure is geared toward crafting policy, selecting judges and bitter infighting. We need spiritual solutions to spiritual problems and cultural solutions to cultural problems.

We are also constantly told to pray every day. We should! Everyone needs to pray the rosary every day and develop our spiritual lives to become Saints. This is crucial and should never be neglected. This is the first battle ground and the most important.

Culture is where conservatives seem to really drop the ball. This is the battle that we aren't even really fighting. If we are, it is usually X show is bad so don't watch it or Y singer is an occultist or whatever. University Z is bad, blah blah. That's fine, we need that.

The problem is, there is hardly anything being done to counter these degrading cultural trends. It is mostly: AVOID AVOID AVOID!! That may be fine in the short-term, but it doesn't work in the long-term. Secular people don't care! These problems aren't going away.

We need more than just avoidance maneuvers. We need to ask: why are these things so popular? Almost no one I know asks this or cares. Conservatives are constantly lamenting the nihilism and hedonism in our shows, movies, music. They are right to do this, but we need more.

The solution they offer is two-fold: ape the cultural trend and do a bad job (Christian Rock) or create corny Christian Movies and books and neglect the artistic craft. Is that what Tolkien did? No. C S Lewis falls more into the second category but he did not neglect craft.

CONSERVATIVES CAN'T CREATE ART!! That's what we are told by other conservatives. That's not true! There are plenty of conservatives in the world of fiction. I'll name three: Tim Powers, Gene Wolfe and John C Wright. Wolfe passed away last year but his work still counts obviously.

IMHO, we are stuck in a sort of cultural malaise. THE ENTERTAINMENT INDUSTRY IS RUN BY PEOPLE WHO HATE US! Yes it is. That is not going to change on its own. SCHOOLS ARE TEACHING PEOPLE BAD THINGS!! Yes, they are. I get the impression that we think these things are inevitable.

The implicit attitude I've noticed is to wait for the end to come. Enjoy what little we can and hope our political leaders save us. Everything is hopeless and nothing good has come since PICK A YEAR. I don't like this plan and this attitude is self-defeating.

These cultural institutions are the way they are, in part, because we stopped participating and fighting. We either did not notice the rot until it was too late, or we left entirely. How many of us want to move away from the cities and into the country? It is tempting.

Entire areas of entertainment are written off as "childish", "shallow" or "stupid." I have news for you. People like super heroes and comic books, Conan the Barbarian and Harry Potter. They strike a cord with people. They aren't Bach and Dostoevsky but they are important!!

Even if you personally think they are problematic or silly, try to understand why they are popular. These things will not save your soul, it's true. They do generate millions and millions of dollars and have effects on the culture in ways we don't understand. They are important!

We need to create. We need art. We need beauty. We need highAND low art. We need to be the ones creating entertainment. Not just complaining or being scared. Want to go after universities? Force them to forgive student loans. Go after their endowments. Many will go bankrupt. Good

We need to have alternatives at the ready when that happens. Christian/Classical schools need to be ready to be inundated with students when the other schools close. Public education, as it currently stands, needs to be gutted and ripped apart. It has been horrible for decades.

If you have a creative talent, indulge it!! Board games, operas, screen writing, painting, pulp novels, poetry, hip-hop dancing. Just make it to the best of your ability. DO NOT NEGLECT CRAFT FOR THE SAKE OF MESSAGE. If you have the talent, then work with what God gave you.

What can you do? Take your money and throw it at conservatives making art. Listen to podcasts like @CatholicPods and Risking Enchantment and buy books from @TheRuocchio, John C Wright, @lampwright4,Tim Powers and @SilverEmpirePub. Listen to music by The Rival Sons.

What can conservative institutions do? Stop pretending that the Supreme Court and the Free Market will save us. They are useful for sure and we need to have people discussing them. I am just asking that more attention is paid to culture. NOT JUST COMPLAINING.

Millionaire Catholics (they exist) should act as patrons and commission movies, like the way they used to commission paintings and sculptures. They can take chances on newer directors with lots of raw talent to create cool and interesting movies.

One more thing. The institution that used to create and preserve culture is the Catholic Church. The Church needs to embrace that aspect of Herself again. Beautiful liturgies (more Latin Masses please), art work, music and chanting. The Church needs to lead this endeavor.

I'm sure my 20 followers are sick of this rant by now. Let me know what you think! I apologize if I went all over the place. This is something I have been thinking about for months now. Winning political victories buys us time. We have squandered that time. We can change that!