“Too many conservatives think that the benefits of their economic policies are self-explanatory; they make such sense to them. But they’re not,” said Kate O’Beirne, the longtime National Review writer who now works as a consultant.

“It’s too abstract. They might say, ‘I’m against excessive regulation.’ Well, how does it hurt the individual? It’s not some abstract burden. It lowers wages for workers and raises costs for consumers.”…

“Republicans trumpet ‘free enterprise’, ‘personal responsibility’ like a college fight-song but they never explain how it is going to better the lives of people outside the conservative echo chamber,” strategist Ford O’Connell says. “It’s a major problem.”

Strategists like O’Connell worry that this tendency is putting their party behind the eight ball in presidential elections, making it increasingly difficult for Republicans to win the electoral college.