The failed "red wave" election in 2022 sent conservatives back to the drawing board to find out why they keep losing winnable elections. After all, 2022 marked the third consecutive national election that ended in disappointment for conservatives. And going back decades, with a few exceptions most elections have left conservatives on the short end, as the left slowly advances its reach into all aspects of American life. This has prompted much soul-searching on the right, with some critics calling out the "conservative professional class" for being content to lose.
Andrea Widburg, conservative writer and commentator with the American Thinker, blames several factors for conservatives repeatedly losing at the ballot box. "For starters, the GOP has been viewed as a somewhat elitist party, it was a gentleman's club, and at the very top they still seem to feel that way," she tells KTRH. "That means you're not impolite, you don't call out cheating, and you're very passive."
While party leaders deserve plenty of blame for election failures, Widburg points out that often GOP voters are also their own worst enemies. "Too many conservative voters are such purists---they demand 100 percent agreement," she says. "So rather than making a vote that offends some of their principles, they will sit out and allow a Democrat who offends every one of their principles to win."
Many of those things appear to be changing this year. With Donald Trump leading the GOP, Republicans are finally embracing things like early voting and minority voter outreach, which Democrats have dominated for years. "I think conservative voters are really fired up and they've turned it around this year, " says Widburg. "The real question is whether the party steps up and makes a difference, because the voters are doing their work."
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