Oh, and about your last point on the importance of getting conservatives elected at all levels — that’s very true. It seemed to me that a lot of local leftist officials were emboldened by Obama’s win, and a lot of the stuff we’re enduring now really got cut loose then, like demons from hell.
During the Obama administration, the number of officeholders at all levels who were Democrats kept shrinking. I think that many of the Democrats who lost or gave up were the more moderate ones in districts where they were not able to win. By default, the Democrat party became much more radical because the moderate Democrats no longer represented a powerful voice in the party.
What we are seeing now is the strengthening of the radical wing of the Democrats because of the Republican-led “purge” of the moderates from their party.