O’Sullivan’s First Law

Phyllis Schlafly speaks at CPAC in 1988, as William Rusher applauds. At the time of Schlafly's speech, CPAC was more conservative, but in more than three decades since then, CPAC has drifted to the Left and the non-conservative agenda of some of its sponsors.

O’Sullivan’s First Law describes the leftward drift of many politicians, leaders, organizations, and educational materials. First coined by John O'Sullivan in 1989, it states: "All organizations that are not actually right-wing will over time become left-wing."

One -- and only one -- possible counterexample: Twitter and its acquisition by Elon Musk. The U.S. Constitution uniquely prevents liberal creep from happening to the United States overall, based on federalism, separation of powers, and the guarantee of freedom of speech.

Examples

• the NFL originally banned football games on Christmas to respect family time and the holyday; but now it airs wall-to-wall, gambling-promoting games on Christmas.
• Harvard was founded to "know God and Jesus Christ," but was later taken over by atheistic liberals.
• The Rhodes scholarship program was established to reward leadership potential and athletic achievement, but over time has been distorted to advance a Leftist agenda without even requiring athletic accomplishment, as in the case of pro-homosexual agenda Pete Buttigieg who was awarded this scholarship without any significant athletic achievement.
• Southwest Airlines thrived by giving freedom to its fun-loving workforce, but was apparently taken over by tyrants who then mandated the COVID vaccine for all workers despite protests by employees.
• The Fox News Channel became a puppet for the liberal media, and liberal censorship in the aftermath of the 2020 election, and had drifted leftward earlier as well.
• The Drudge Report's leftward drift as well as the neoconservative National Review. See Drudge Report Alternatives.
• Christian colleges, such as Wheaton College, which first compromised on Biblical inerrancy and evolution, then increasingly on other issues like abortion, homosexuality, feminism, and Islam. Azusa Pacific University also has drifted far from its Christian roots. Christians in the West, overall, have become increasingly compromised. Christianity Today's liberal shift is an example of this.
• The many token conservatives who originally held conservative positions but shifted sharply to the Left, like Chris Wallace, whose father Mike Wallace worked with Walter Cronkite at CBS.
• Republican politicians frequently cave on political issues and accept the Left's positions, whether it be on "climate change," ObamaCare, immigration, or some other issue. When Alabama enacted a ban on most types of abortion, many establishment Republican politicians claimed it "went too far" despite it still allowing abortion in several cases. Additionally, after mass shootings, Republican officials increasingly ignore the root of the problem and instead join leftists' assault on self-governance and the Second Amendment.
• European establishment conservatives, who eventually shifted sharply to the Left, supporting Europhile, pro-mass migration, and anti-Christian policies, such as Angela Merkel.
• The Conservative Political Action Conference's leftward drift, marginalizing social conservatives and pro-gun activists, among other conservatives, while caving to the homosexual agenda.
• Pat Robertson's shift to the Left on several issues, including abortion, gun control, climate change, and his support for liberal Republican Rudy Giuliani in 2008.
• The Boy Scouts of America's shift to the Left on social issues such as homosexuality and gender. Other Christian organizations have experienced a similar shift.
• The media, big business, and the military establishment once were generally conservative though liberal thinking now predominates within them.
• Positions that once lay in the mainstream of society only a few years previously are being increasingly labeled as "far-right" or "ultra-right."
• Chick-fil-A's surrender to far-Left activists by ending its donations to conservative Christian organizations in November 2019, and also donating to the far-left hate group the Southern Poverty Law Center.
• During the Cold War Mongoven, Biscoe & Duchin operated as an anti-communist and anti-socialist investment advisory and public relations group; in the unipolar moment its executives merged with Stratfor, a neocon, neo-liberal and globalist front organization.

See also

• Liberal infiltration
• Creeping socialism
• Overton Window
• Iron law of oligarchy