The Obama years did something to the Right, though. Conservatives felt they’d thoroughly lost. They looked around and saw the iron-fisted grip the Left had on our bureaucracies, schools, entertainment industry, media, and culture, and they went into despair. They stopped fighting for something, and instead began to pour all of their energy into one mission and one mission alone: to “win.”

What did winning mean? That was pretty vague. …

As a result, in 2023 we’re left with a shell of a conservative movement—one that is totally unmoored from any cohesive ideology or ethical lens through which it views the world. Instead, the core audience thrashes about like wheat grains in the wind, bending in whichever direction the hot air blows from.

Such people have always been easy to take advantage of.

[Anyone who has watched politics for more than a few years has seen this trend. It has become mainstream, with activists ridiculing focus on policy and philosophy informing political choice as hopelessly outdated. The need to answer in kind is not a mirage, but it can’t be an end unto itself. — Ed]