I don’t know about your second thesis. Have to think about that. But I disagree with your first thesis that it was “individual issues/state races” that doomed the conservatives in 06. That’s still part of our problem, in that we aren’t yet willing to admit that there are times that conservatism will BE A LOSER. And that’s ok. That’s history. Nobody wins all the time, and face it, conservatism imposes self-discipline and market discipline, and when possible, people want to be as undisciplined as they can. I think blaming the 06 losses on a galaxy of unsupportable individual race things does not get us closer to solving the problem.
No, no. I’m saying Conservatism did NOT lose in 2006. The Republican party did. When I saw Democrat candidates running that year AS IF they were Conservative Republicans, I knew that it wasn’t the ideology that was unappealing. Very few were running as unabashed liberals. In my state of TN, Junior Ford in his race for the Senate ran to the RIGHT of the RINO nominee. Indeed, if I wasn’t aware of his voting record and party label, I’d have though Ford was a Black Republican.
Ultimately, as I cited, the individual incumbents had differing reasons for their losses that ultimately added up to the anti-GOP tidal wave, but as I said, it had nothing to do with a repudiation of Conservatism (even if we know now the Dems had no intention of implementing policies for the right), indeed, it was an affirmation. It was singular disgust for the GOP. Now we’re seeing a repeat this year, anti-GOP, not anti-Conservative.