I submit that the primary reason is because, with only a handful of exceptions, almost none of them actually believe in anything beyond their "careers" and staying in office. In addition, another factor is personal cowardice - most of our politicians, who get to make the decisions which send our young military personnel around the world to die or be maimed in the service of their country, aren't fit to shine the boots of those they command.
Other deleterious factors contribute to the problem as well. There is plenty of just plain ignorance and stupidity to go around, and of course unhealthy doses of greed, dishonesty and the lust for power. Finally, my personal favorite, some of them are just plain evil (I wanted to get that out there while we're still allowed to say it... /g).
nathan, your comments are always worth reading, even when we disagree. I'm sure you remember the story of when Abraham Lincoln was confronted about how inappropriate is was to put General Grant in charge of the army because of his slovenly habits and the fact that he was a drunk. Lincoln replied that whatever his faults Grant would at least fight and win battles, and if they'd tell him what kind of whiskey he drank he'd send a barrel to his other generals.
"Our side" is intent upon battering and bloodying themselves over secondary factors of doctrinal nuance and purity, while refusing to acknowledge the necessity of taking the fight directly to the Left. As an acquaintance on another forum puts it, the Institutional Republican Party is just going through the motions to preserve their status quo. They really do prefer to lose the election rather than allow a paradigm shift in which they're no longer in charge of the party.
AB! has been graciously doing this useful and informative thread for years. And it is still worthwhile to watch or keep up with the Sunday Talk Shows as a means of knowing our enemies. However, let's just imagine, as a mental exercise, an alternate reality where the Democrats were in the position the Repubs hold now.
There would be no Sunday Talk Shows where the Repubs and a Repub-controlled media got to regularly manipulate and humiliate a small, carefully-selected subset of Democrat guests for propaganda purposes. Rather than submit to such a loaded scenario the Dems would exercise that famous discipline they've shown time and again and refuse to allow any of their people to participate. Those who tried to break ranks for their own personal benefit (the John McCain and Lindsey Graham types) would be punished severely.
The Dems and their allies on the Left would never submit to play in such a rigged game where they weren't in charge. They'd either take the battle to another front and forum, and the Sunday Talk Show format would wither away, or they'd send only approved, designated spokesmen for the party who'd only parrot an approved, consistent, undeviating party line. No independents, "mavericks", etc. out to cut their own deals and build themselves up would be allowed.
Those differences in discipline, focus and unity of purpose are why they're winning and we're not.
Partisan politics aside, what we are witnessing is the collapse of the welfare state. It is happening here and in Europe. Regardless of what party is in power, the reality is that we cannot remain on our current course. We will have to make some very painful decisions and the longer we wait, the more painful they will be.
Those decisions will have to be made in the context of what we perceive the role of government to be. The Left has created a growing culture of dependency on government. They will resist cuts in the entitlement and welfare programs for both political and philospohical reasons. Our founding documents will come under the greatest stress in our history because the Left sees them as an impediment to their agenda. The Left will try to keep the welfare state going a little longer by increasing taxes and reducing defense expenditures, i.e., the classical guns versus butter battle we have seen played out in Europe. The strategy may work in the short term and be to their political advantage, but the in the long term it is doomed to failure just like the bailouts in Greece.
The GOP establishment has failed to address the issue in terms of its larger context, i.e., the role of government. Instead, they are framing the issues in terms of making the welfare state work more efficiently and effectively. They had to be drawn kicking and screaming into supporting Ryan's plan to change Medicare, which really is not that radical. None of our current Presidential candidates are really discussing rolling back the welfare state. Newt and Rick have expressed their support of the prescription drug program, a $7.2 trillion unfunded liability. Mitt has Romneycare, which says a lot about how he views the role of government. I recall Daniel Hannan at CPAC paraphrasing Mark Twain, that if all you have is a hammer (government spending) then everything (problems) starts to look like a nail.
What I fear will happen is that nothing will be done until a real crisis develops (similar to Greece) and by that time it is probably too late. The economic, political, and human costs could rend the fabric of our society and result in the loss of individual liberties and personal freedoms. The politicians prefer their short term survival to the long term interests of this country. Our political leadership has failed us and ultimately, we the public deserve most of the blame for being uninformed and disengaged.