Right wingers spend their time trying to stave off defeat. They believe that a single loss--"gay marriage," an immigration amnesty, an EU treaty--will wipe them out forever, by destroying marriage, their country, their whole civilization.
That's a sure-fire losing strategy in a war in which the battles constantly repeat themselves with no end in sight. What's needed is to lay out a permanent line of action toward goals that can survive any number of defeats. That will require a much more comprehensive and flexible understanding of our situation. Conservatism is notoriously concrete. It must become less so.