” Clearly articulating why conservatism itself WORKS, and therefore IS compassionate, would be something not tried in a long time.”
30 years
In my voting lifetime, there were vestiges of conservatism articulated in 80, 84, 94 and 2010. Seems to me we did alright in all of those.
In 92, 96, 98, 2006, 2008, we ran from conservatism - and all were unmitigated disasters.
In 1988, 2000, 2004, there was sort of a mix, and we squeaked by.
In 2002, the Dems just ran so far left, we won big by defaut.
Seems to me history is clear: the wider the ideological chasm in an election year, the better we do. The narrower, the worse we do.