But as George Bernard Shaw and his ilk realized early on, normal people will not accept lunatic ideas right out of the bottle. They have to be diluted, and added to the water supply, such that the end of achieving them can be pursued in open sight, and be welcomed by people who would be infuriated by and sickened by the actual end plan.
Even in the Soviet Union, before it was the Soviet Union, the Bolsheviks found it necessary to promise farmers more land, independence to various nations captured through Russian imperialism, relief to workers, fair elections for all, and similar folderol, of which they meant none of it.
Only once they had complete power did they ban unions, start collectivizing farms, faking elections, and over the course of the 1920’s, reconquering all the nations to which they had initially promised freedom. They rebuilt the allegedly immoral Russian Empire, then worked diligently on expanding it–to repeat myself–imperialistically.
Logically, the push in the OTHER direction has to be subtle, long term, and filled with compromises in the interest of pragmatism.
One sees these silly Never-Trumpers acting as if the only options are complete rigidity and complete submission. If politics is the art of the possible, then honest, serious people have to become politicians.
And the great advantage of Conservatism–which I call true Liberalism–is that WE DON”T HAVE TO LIE. We win by getting our truths out.
But we have to be gradual. We have to be pragmatic. We have to remember our ideals, but like the Left–which has so effectively conquered over time our cultural and political landscape–we have to always be looking for small steps, small moves, small victories. Enough of them, and we turn back the tide.
Conversely, for those who will not bend under any circumstances, I would suggest they are ideologically identical to True Believers, who are useless, and quickly cast aside by everyone, as has indeed happened under Trump.
The question is always: in this cultural tug of war, in which direction is the ball going? If it is going our way, and we can keep it going our way, at any speed, then eventually we will win.