McNamara's Morons & McNamara's Razor

The Problem with Large Coalitions

McNamara’s Razor: The morons on our side are more dangerous than the enemy.

A movement that values size over discipline is already lost. It spreads itself too thin, allowing its weakest members to define its image. Strength does not come from numbers but from unity, from a shared sense of purpose and the competence to carry it out. Without these, expansion leads to collapse.

Robert McNamara learned this when he lowered recruitment standards to fill the ranks in Vietnam. He swelled the army’s numbers with men unfit for war, turning a strategic force into a liability. These men, dubbed McNamara’s Morons, could not fight effectively. They could not follow orders. They could not be relied upon. And so, they died in greater numbers, dragging their comrades down with them.

The lesson was clear. A coalition is only as strong as its least capable members. If it refuses to set standards, if it allows incompetence to fester, it will not be undone by its enemies. It will be undone by those who claim to fight alongside it.

Every movement that fails to enforce this principle will be defined by its worst elements. It will be ridiculed, discredited, and rendered ineffective. It will destroy itself before its opposition ever needs to.

II. McNamara’s Morons: A Case Study in Self-Sabotage

A weak link doesn’t strengthen the chain, it snaps it.

Robert McNamara, in his desperation to fill the ranks of the U.S. Army, made a fatal miscalculation. He prioritized numbers over competence, opening the floodgates for recruits with IQs below 80. These men, unfit for combat, were thrown into a war they could not understand, let alone survive. They could not follow orders. They could not react under fire. They could not function as soldiers.

Their presence did not strengthen the military—it weakened it. They required more training, more supervision, and more resources, yet still performed worse than their peers. They slowed operations, caused avoidable casualties, and forced competent soldiers to compensate for their failures. The burden they placed on the war effort outweighed any benefit their presence provided.

This was not a mistake unique to Vietnam. It was a universal failure—the failure to recognize that a force filled with liabilities is no force at all. When an institution lowers its standards to accommodate mediocrity, it invites destruction. It turns its own ranks into a greater threat than the enemy outside.

McNamara’s Morons were not the cause of America’s failure in Vietnam, but they were a symptom of it. They represented an army that had lost sight of its purpose, that valued numbers over effectiveness, that believed sheer mass could replace skill. The result was predictable: defeat, disillusionment, and a reputation forever tarnished by self-inflicted wounds.

A coalition that follows the same path will meet the same fate. If it cannot enforce standards, if it allows its weakest members to define it, then its destruction is inevitable.

III. Large Coalitions Breed Internal Sabotage

Your worst members will always be the ones who make the headlines—act accordingly.

A movement’s greatest threat is not its external enemies, but the incompetents, grifters, and fanatics who infiltrate its ranks. The larger a coalition grows, the more it attracts people who do not understand its purpose—or worse, seek to exploit it. The result is inevitable: disorder, division, and eventual collapse.

The right suffers from this constantly. It builds coalitions under the illusion that size equals strength, welcoming anyone who vaguely shares its opposition to the left. It embraces charlatans who crave attention, fools who cannot articulate a coherent argument, and ideological tourists who care more about their personal brand than the cause itself. These people do not reinforce the movement. They weigh it down.

The left does not make this mistake. It purges its liabilities without hesitation. Those who embarrass the movement, contradict its messaging, or jeopardize its goals are cast out. It does not tolerate weakness, because it understands that one fool can discredit an entire cause.

But the right clings to its liabilities, mistaking them for free thinkers. It allows them to take leadership roles, to speak on its behalf, to turn every serious effort into a circus. The result is predictable: a movement constantly dragged down by its own self-inflicted wounds, spending more time explaining away the antics of its own members than advancing its goals.

A movement that cannot control its own image does not need enemies. It will destroy itself from within.

IV. The Right’s Inability to Police Its Own

A movement that won’t set standards will be defined by those who can’t meet them.

The left understands discipline. It purges the weak, the embarrassing, and the incompetent without hesitation. It does not allow fools to speak on its behalf. It does not tolerate those who undermine its credibility. Those who stray from the script are removed, erased, forgotten. This is how it maintains its power.

The right does the opposite. It tolerates, defends, and even elevates its worst members. It refuses to enforce standards, mistaking chaos for freedom and incompetence for authenticity. It allows unhinged cranks, opportunists, and outright liabilities to stand alongside its serious thinkers, poisoning the entire movement in the process.

One fool can do more damage than a thousand enemies. A movement can have the strongest arguments, the best strategy, and the clearest vision, but if its public face is an embarrassment, none of that matters. One viral moment of stupidity outweighs years of careful planning. The left understands this. The right does not.

Every time the right defends its own embarrassments under the banner of free speech or “not abandoning our own,” it digs its own grave. A movement that cannot police itself will be policed by its enemies. A movement that refuses to set standards will be defined by its worst members.

McNamara’s Razor applies here: the morons on your side are more dangerous than your enemies. The right’s greatest weakness is not its opposition—it is its refusal to remove those who make it look ridiculous.

V. Conclusion: Build Smart, Not Big

A disciplined minority beats an undisciplined majority every time.

A disciplined, focused movement will always outlast a large, chaotic one. Numbers alone do not win battles. Strength comes from coordination, from purpose, from the ability to move as a single force. A movement that refuses to enforce standards, that welcomes everyone regardless of competence, is a movement destined to collapse under its own weight.

McNamara’s Morons lost battles because they should never have been in the fight. The same principle applies to politics. A movement that refuses to filter out its liabilities will be defined by them. It will waste its energy defending the indefensible. It will fight more battles against itself than against its opponents. It will be remembered not for its best ideas, but for its worst mistakes.

The right clings to the fantasy that it can afford to be a broad coalition, that it can include everyone who dislikes the left, no matter how unserious, incompetent, or destructive they may be. This is a fatal mistake.

A coalition that values size over competence is already doomed. The question is not if it will fail, but when. The solution is simple: set standards, enforce them, and cut loose those who do more harm than good. A movement that cannot control itself will never control anything else.