The truth of the matter is that no one in either party wants the border secured.

Plenty of Republicans do, but they don't have the votes.  It's as simple as that.

And no wonder. The Republicans are standing upon nothing.

The slimness of the majority maximizes the power of each member, and of each faction.  That makes it almost impossible for them to stick together on anything controversial.

If we want a more conservative House, we have to elect more conservatives.  There aren't any shortcuts.  Trying shortcuts by vacating the Speakership or by minorities acting as disruptors will not work, and likely only reduce the chances of electing more conservatives.

The same solutions prevail. The way you do it is ground up, grassroots... Start taking it back. It's a long and bitter thing, not fixed by shiny shit or political messiahs, with no rest for the weary. Eternal Vigilance. Always. Little corrections along the way are much easier than sweeping changes. But when the chips are down, and sweeping change is what you need, it is still one vote at a time, from the bottom up.

You should know. Look at your own state. a decade ago it was purple.

Hope remains.

 

Yep, once it was established the real conservative right would sell out for centralist ideas, candidates stopped even trying to appease them. If you have no line in the sand, then that line gets blown away. Want my vote, be a conservative Christian.

I think it is more about the message: Other entities (read populists, neocons) always abscond with, and then alter the Conservative message. Even now. They are ALL conservatives during an election year. I don't think real Conservatives have moved an inch - It's not in their nature, guided by eternal principles.

But very much like Christianity (or rather Judeo-Christianity), orthodoxy is hard to maintain against usurpers. Real Christians, Bible-believing Christians, cannot be in favor of abortion or homosexuality, but look at how many 'christian' churches and organizations do exactly that... Watering the message to suit themselves.

Conservatism suffers the exact same fate. And like Christians, they vote with their feet, and many once Conservative organizations have fallen to liberalism, or have died on the vine heading that way. That does not mean there are less Conservatives. Just that they are no longer represented. Even as measurement of Christianity seems to indicate less Christians because their membership is no longer found in hierarchical old school denominations... Like Christianity, Conservatism has gone congregational. I literally don't know a single Conservative Republican. They're all independents now.

I miss @INVAR

Oh, me too! Many philosophical Conservatives of every stripe are gone from here - Those who used to lend their wisdom.