Problem also is....nobody voted.
Problem also is....nobody voted.
Retail politics is just plain hard work. And it requires perseverance, something that the left is very, very good at. Most conservatives just want the government to fix the potholes, arrest criminals, and just leave everyone else alone. The left is driven by the desire for power, and they're like the terminator: they can't be bargained with, they can't be reasoned with, they don't feel pity or remorse or fear, and they absolutely will not stop… EVER, until you are dead (or enslaved)!
But there does seem to be a new sprit on the populist right that seems to understand this, and care enough to interrupt their lives by doing things like running for school boards, city and county councils, and perhaps even more importantly for local GOP county central committee seats. Any path that retains some vestiges of liberty will lead through the GOP, as depressing as that sounds. And it's important after a loss to just pick yourself up, brush off the dust, and then continue the fight.
The old Barry Goldwater warriors understood this after 1964, and they were the heart and soul of grass roots politics for a generation. They were a great example of refusing to give up, and there's some hope that the populist right understands the nature of the fight that we're in.