Since the end of the Cold War, what trajectory-altering successes or victories can the Right cite to demonstrate its worth? ... Despite spending billions of dollars supporting its infrastructure ... the establishment Right has registered no clear gains and many clear losses.
Winning the Cold War was itself a major accomplishment -- and there was overturning Roe v. Wade. A lot of the things that the Establishment Right fought for and won turned out not to be good for the country -- NAFTA, WTO, detente with China, Mideast wars, higher campaign spending limits. There was also something unrealistic about Buckley's project from the beginning. Was the Depression generation really going to "repeal the New Deal" and return to how things were before? Such victories as are won are going to be on a much smaller scale than that.
We've ALWAYS been at war with EastAsia!