And once again we see the new populist right being ignorant of history and blaming the old conservatives for losses they had no way at the time to counter, and in fact saw how they lost and took efforts to reverse.
What am I talking about? Obscenity laws. You know how those were lost? It wasn't through some obscure beuracractic nonsense or the long march through the institutions, no, obscenity laws were systematically weakened by the US Supreme Court starting with, of course, the Progressive Warren court in the 1950s and continuing up until the 1990s. In fact, the continual weakening of obscenity laws was one of the reasons for the Conservative movement that began AS A REACTION to the Progressive movements of the 1960s to focus on the Court.
But reversing and capturing the Supreme Court was a long term project. They couldn't, say, use the scorched earth and aggressive tactics the new right seems to love and say should be used. They couldn't, for instance, start impeaching Supreme Court justices since, after all, Republicans (to say nothing of Conservatives) never controlled both chambers of Congress until the 1990s (and by the time they DID the court capture project was far enough along there was no need and you even began seeing reversals of the weakening of obscenity laws). No, rather they worked with what they had, which was usually the Presidency and narrow Senate majorities that enabled them to, in the long term, remake the Court.
And you know what? IT WORKED, but once again they are given no credit and instead damned for NOT DOING ENOUGH!
Who would have expected.