"One of big problems is that conservatives can be good at articulating what they believe . . ."
No, they're not because they split hairs to the point that the critical points are often lost and that tendency makes them suckers for being led off their message and into ambushes. They also can't resist fighting one another over every shade of every issue large and small rather than agreeing to a truce among conservatives until there's a victory on something they all agree on. In the type of political system the Constitution created people have to be willing to work for things over time. The fascists have been and are still quite willing to be patient while conservatives aren't.
Reagan, Rush, Bill Buckley, these are conservatives who weren't or aren't afraid to spell out what they believe, explain what they believed, and not worry a bit about anyone who doesn't agree with them. Reagan only made it to the Presidency because he knew the ropes well enough to know when to ignore and when to smack down conservatives who were arguing over how to redesign the bandwagon instead of getting on board the Reagan bandwagon.
The day when someone can do what Reagan did is long gone and it was destroyed by the very medium we're using for this discussion. Conservatives refuse to work together to achieve a goal, then work together on the next goal, and so on because doing so requires them to submit to some degree, however minor, of authority. Enough Conservatives basically don't believe in working for the good of the group they're in unless they get to make the rules that the Conservative majority of the population ends up at parity with fascists on a good day, and well behind on most days.
People can form a circle of electronic friends and get all the positive emotional feedback they want. They don't have any emotional need for being part of a winning Party or campaign to feel like they're making a difference. They're completely happy with the illusion that they're making a difference while the society collapses around them due to there being no effective resistance to the fascists. Consequently, conservatives who tend to mind their own business anyway, squabble over what's important and divide into warring camps while the fascists create and then implement one solid propaganda campaign after another and conservatives completely ignore what's going on until it's already too late. Our opponents are effective because they've made people emotionally dependent on being in constant touch with and in total agreement with the group.
How well conservatives communicate is moot at this point and will be until conservatives manage to figure out how to work together instead of taking their toys and going home when they're ticked off. If the radical fascists who took over the democrat party could take that solidly entrenched bunch of nobility on and win, conservatives could take on the entrenched Republican nobility and win.
It's just that conservatives will never do it. I don't know if they don't believe in winning enough to do it or they don't really believe that this country is worth saving, but they don't care one way or the other who runs the country as long as they can hide out from the consequences of not caring.
I'm sorry, but I don't see how conservatives in this country climbing the scaffold without complaint, then putting the rope around their own necks, is an indication that conservatives are good at anything at all much less at getting their message out to anyone, even to one another.
Now, for the bad news. The people who have wormed their way into control of all the agencies and departments are people who idolized the SDS and other radicals. They don't believe anyone is serious about what they believe unless they're willing to both ignore the law and use violence to further their agenda. That's what they're teaching young folks who they know how to attract far better than conservatives do, too. They look at their conservative opponents, reflect on, ???, and how it shows that conservatives are very willing to use violence to further their agenda, and laugh.
I'm afraid we've reached the point that communication skills no longer make any difference with regard to who is in control. If it still does, it won't for much longer because for far too long we've accepted as decent citizens those who only understand violence and force. Conservatives lost the stomach for the sorts of battles it takes to keep a nation free and it's a good bet they don't have the stomach for any other sort of battle, either. After all, getting out and doing all you can do will get you slandered far worse that sitting on the sidelines will because so few people are realists who know all you can do is all you can do.
JMHO
People can form a circle of electronic friends and get all the positive emotional feedback they want.
Exactly. That's what some want FR to be, a ever-smaller, ever more lockstep circle of "electronic friends" as those who disagree with them (on one issue out of twenty) ride the lightning.