I don't think it was ever meant to be easy - that we can "coast"...
“The condition upon which God hath given liberty to man is eternal vigilance,”
- John Philpot Curran, 1790
That's made possible by those who continually support those who are anything but conservative and in fact those who refuse to even demand simple common sense polices such as demands for dramatic reductions in the size and scope of controlling government, secured borders etc.
Party over principle, over and over. Compromise over conservatism.
It's why we are trillions in debt, have an insider government which continues to grow, the dollar declines, borders are a lawless free for all, citizenship made pointless and on and on and on. They get rich, we eat s**t.