Conservative politics has never been an easy sell to the public at large, despite claims to the contrary by Rush Limbaugh, Hannity, etc.
After all, a large segment of the public believes that Republicans want to deprive kids of Christmas presents... that Republicans want to let the poor die of cancer....
Many people won’t vote for the party that tells people they should eat their spinach, to stop cursing, that it is better to be faithful than to cheat...
That people should work instead of grabbing free health care, free lunches, free everything....
The Democrat-loving press makes every racial hatred, every perversion, every ax to grind... out to be a noble cause.
They media convinces everyone there are no consequences to bad behavior.
The lazy people buy it hook, line, and sinker.
THAT is the main reason Republicans have such a hard time gaining support.
Regardless, it isn't a hard sell, IMO. Even Arnold won the California recall by talking like a common-sense conservative.
Unfortunately, for those who looked under the covers, they knew it was all talk from day-one.
If we keep "selling" something that isn't what it is marketed to be, we'll lose. I've voted Republican all my life because it was the party of personal responsibility, strong defense, and smaller government. Now Republicans have opted for big spending programs and trying to be the solution to problems that don't exist. If that is the new "brand," I think they can count a lot of people out. The Democratic party already offers those things--we will be destroyed with a single ideology being embraced by both of the leading parties.
The popularity of Rush Limbaugh, Hannity, etc is contrasted to the unpopularity of the Republican Party. There is a reason for this disparity. It is what the article is all about.
There has always been a biased leftwing media establishment. When they were a lot more powerful than they are now, they smeared Ronald Reagan as wanting to throw your grandmother out of the nursing home and into the street. He won decisively anyway.
Blaming the mainstream media has gotten us nowhere. Building the alternative media has achieved a great deal. The mainstream media is less powerful now than in most of the last century. For example, there are no Walter Cronkites left. No William Randolph Hearsts. And America is far the better for their departure.
The key to "selling" conservative principles is to insure that America is the selling point. Ronald Reagan sold us on ourselves as a nation, and the conservative part just followed effortlessly. Give me a candidate who lifts up the America of We the People, the way RR did, and you'll see the dismal, crappy negativity of the Obama socialists dry up and blow away.