Elise Ehrhard (@EliseEhrhard)

I've been thinking about how in the past 50 years there are only three conservative movements that have made genuine and sustained progress in moving the cultural needle in the right direction: 1) the pro-life movement, 2) homeschooling and 3) gun rights. I think conservatives need to look at characteristics these movements share. 1) In the case of pro-life and homeschooling, they were organic, from the ground up movements (I don't know enough about the gun rights movement). 2) None of these movements apologized for their beliefs or sought "elite" approval. In the case of both the pro-life and gun rights movements, activists were sometimes willing to use the sort of blunt language DC types hate without apology. 3) The oligarchy routinely smeared all these movements as being filled with "weirdos" (or "gun nuts" in the case of gun rights), but the organizers DIDN'T CARE. They carried on with their work and never gave up. There is a lot that conservatism in general could learn from these points.