Something struck me today - for years, I have been a big magazine subscriber, and back in the mid-80s, because I was sort of a political follower starting to emerge, I subscribed to both liberal and conservative magazines to try and decipher differences in political ideology and the political landscape.

Back then, and before then, conservatives invested heavily in think tanks and the like and for the longest time, liberals lamented how much more advanced and effective these organizations were on the right in comparison to their own.

This went on and on, with the Democrats sucking hind tit on so many things (judges, messaging, winning elections, et cetera). 

And in reading these magazines (National Review, Human Events, The American Spectator...and some others I'm sure I'm missing), I would vehemently argue that these people, especially the sincere conservatives interested in serious philosophy, ideology, and research were intellectuals and they did build an effective apparatus to pursue their goals. 

My odd observation is this - how rich is it that all these serious thinkers, who built an apparatus that did them well, have been pushed aside and discarded and now the Republican Party is ruled by the current nuts in Washington, and none of them on the same scale as those that got them to where they are now? 

Ah, but is that not typical of American life?  Those who do the work rarely reap the benefits of what they have sown, only to have those things go to the undeserved.

Don't get me wrong - hopefully, someday the tide will turn and all these people will get the rewards they truly deserve - but until then, it's kind of bittersweet seeing conservative politics being eaten by Frankenstein's monster that was created.