If conservatives rise to the challenge of the day, they will likely no longer be called conservatives, because what needs to be done—attempting to refound America again after the Left did so last century—is not, by definition, very conservative. Counter-revolutionary, maybe.

The establishments wish to conserve their power and the status quo, which is basically a century of progressive liberalism used to justify their rule. The institutions they control must be either overhauled or broken.

If conservatism doesn’t rise to the challenge, it won’t be called conservative in the future either—because having failed to stop its enemies, it will have been destroyed by them.

In order to accomplish what needs to be done, conservatives 1) need to undermine or take over our failing institutions. This requires the right use of power.

2) They need to propose an appealing American way of life people can rally around, and start building paths towards it. Paths people can follow, or see themselves following to start. Without this positive vision, all of this is a hollow LARP.

In truth, it’s not clear how many of them are up to the task. But the younger ones, or the younger people who would have been “conservative” in prior decades, see and understand what time it is.

Their problem is that few competent people and institutions on the right see what they see or are willing to acknowledge the reality of our circumstances, never mind lead something forward. So they understandably grasp at anything that does.