Greg Hood has some excellent thoughts on this—and he cites James Burnham as his inspiration.
His view—power is a zero sum game.
If you don’t take it and hold it, your enemies will.
That means that the old concept of “public interest” is just wrong.
There is no “public”, there are only factions with their own interests.
If you don’t identify your own faction and fanatically support your own interest, you will be crushed by those that do.
That is what we are seeing now.
Once conservatives “get it” that power is all that matters, they will demand that power and demand winning.
That is one of the main points of the Constitution. Limit the amount of power which flows to the government, especially the central government.
The Progressives have worked hard, with much success to concentrate more and more power in government, especially the Federal government.
We need to move more power back to the individual, away from the federal and state governments.
That is all very true.
Conservatives have been too willing to let others do the hard work of organizing politically and getting people elected, then acting effectively in office. EVERYONE needs to get involved at every level. “I’m not interested in politics, I’m busy with my job/career, etc.” isn’t going to cut it. It is your civic duty as an American, America only works if people volunteer and step up.