The left creates too many narratives while looking through rose-colored glasses | Opinion

“We have won the battle of ideas, but we have lost the battle of stories.”

The quote is not mine. It is from Rodrigo Arenas, owner of the conservative Guatemalan digital media outlet República. But I asked permission to use it with the promise to always credit the author of the original quote.

And here we continue, lamenting how time and time again the moral superiority of the left is imposed in Europe, Latin America and, more recently, in the United States. At this point, it is difficult to defend with data and facts that capitalism is not the least bad of systems and not hurt feelings.

Nor is it reasonable to believe that communism functions as a form of government after the innumerable failures experienced, whether in the Russian steppes or the beaches of Cuba, to give just two examples.

The data, always the data.

The right overwhelms with data, macroeconomics, microeconomics and indices of wealth and well-being, while the left, far from surrendering to the evidence, counterattacks with emotions, its stories, its fables directed at people’s hearts.

So we find, for example, that in the cosmopolitan bars of prosperous Europe, young students and professionals, speaking several languages, toast each other with beer while wearing T-shirts bearing the image of Che Guevara. But behind the face of the bearded revolutionary hides a violent character, who had no qualms about apologizing for deaths at the United Nations and who is also documented to have been a homophobe. Who cares about data if you can weave together an epic story of the hero who fought against the powerful and died defending the most favored against an evil army in Bolivia? Heedless journalists use the phrase. “don’t let the facts spoil a good story” and this is what left-wing propagandists have done since the middle of the 20th century.

We have come to accept that a right-wing dictatorship is always reprehensible while always able to justify left-wing dictatorship. Something like, “Pinochet is detestable, but Fidel has his grace.” For Sen. Bernie Sanders, “It would be unfair” to affirm that “everything is bad” in Cuba’s communist regime, and he praises the hospitality of Brezhnev’s Soviet Union, a place he chose to enjoy his honeymoon with his wife. Can you imagine if a Republican leader spoke about the wonders of Pinochet’s Chile and proudly displayed his photo album of his honeymoon in the Argentina of the military junta?

We also see countries governed by social democrats in Europe or the different Democratic administrations in the United States shamelessly endorse the socialist governments of Latin America. Maduro, Correa, Ortega, Morales and company are not equated with the moderate European left. They do not respect the separation of powers, they do not respect human rights, they persecute the press and they stifle private initiative. But, once again, we have accepted the story of the fight against the powerful and evil businessmen.

For this struggle of principles between conservatives and progressives, which takes place mainly in the media, ideologues have to keep the data in a drawer and play the story card.

The story of a humble worker who prefers to live on his efforts than on government aid. The story of a family that wants to watch television series that show them different ways of living life and choose the one they like best. Stories of women, of the environment, of solidarity. Stories that don’t need political correctness to be attractive.

The war is not yet lost. The time has come to confront the left in the battle of the narrative.

Manuel Aguilera is founder and CEO of the HispanoPost Media Group. He is a former executive editor of Univision’s online platform.