Posted on 06/18/2016 2:08:43 PM PDT by Innovative
Hard to say. Trump is doing well, and I think he has the best chance to best Hillary of the GOP field. That being said, it’s a long shot.
He doesn’t present himself as a principled conservative. Rather, he’s presenting himself as a non ideological, results oriented deal maker, with conservative leanings. His support isn’t conservative, exactly, but many conservatives are a part of it.
The plain truth is that conservatives have lost ground on every political and cultural front over the last thirty years. Conservatives aren’t players at all in popular culture.
There’s are large swaths of the electorate that will simply never vote for a traditional conservative Republican. That may change over time, but that’s how I see it now.
“The plain truth is that conservatives have lost ground on every political and cultural front over the last thirty years. Conservatives aren’t players at all in popular culture.”
The number of conservative republicans elected to the House and Senate over the last 8 years has been massive. The TEA party is a political force to be reckoned with and they didn’t exist 10 years ago. Conservative talk radio and Internet programming has exploded. TV shows (like Blue Bloods) and movies (13 hours in Benghazi) are increasing in number and popularity. You see the glass as more than half empty. I see the glass as half full and still being filled.
Yet they're inept and ineffective, unable to mount even a nominal resistance to the liberal agenda, letr alone an effective one.
Between 2009 and 2010, the democrats had control of the presidency and Congress, and scored major, enduring victories for their cause.
Between 2003 and 2006, Republicans had control of the presidency and Congress, and scored no major, enduring victories for their cause.
Indeed, in that time the status quo has become more liberal, not more conservative. And the GOP, despite some electoral victories, can't muster a defense, let alone an effective offense.
Culturally we're more liberal than we were eight years ago, or sixteen years ago.
The TEA party is a political force to be reckoned with and they didn’t exist 10 years ago.
The Tea Party peaked as a resistance to Obama in 2009-2010, and many of their candidates simply failed to score on even one important conservative goal.
Conservative talk radio and Internet programming has exploded.
Dubious, as many conservative talk show ratings are down. But even if I accept that premise, it demonstrates that modern conservationism is increasingly becoming an intellectual exercise. No actual real-world application, just writing and talking. That's not a good thing.
TV shows (like Blue Bloods) and movies (13 hours in Benghazi) are increasing in number and popularity.
The liberal agenda is dominant in pop culture - movies, music, television. Conservatives are relegated to relatively small projects on the fringes. Flip through the few hundred cable channels sometime and you will go a long time without encountering the conservative point of view presented as intelligent and legitimate.
You see the glass as more than half empty. I see the glass as half full and still being filled.
I don't see much out there to be optimistic about. I genuinely believe we're in a period of liberal ascendancy and dominance that will endure until it can no longer last. Probably much of the 21st century.
Republicans and conservatives will have some victories during that time, but it's one step forward, four steps back. I honestly don't know how anyone can look at the landscape and see anything different.
” I honestly don’t know how anyone can look at the landscape and see anything different.”
You’ve made that pretty obvious.
It’s silly to compare the Congress and House under Bush to the current ones. Many of those guys got primaried. As just happened again recently...but not to a guy.
I won’t bother pointing things out to you that give me hope; you seem pretty adamant about being in despair.
No despair. I just can see pretty clearly that continuing to vote for the GOP in its current form won’t get us anywhere worth getting to.
No despair. Just “Plan B.”
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