What have conservatives conserved?

This question, in a thousand variations, has stalked the conservative movement for years. And not entirely without reason. Billions of donor dollars have been shoveled into conservative causes, from think tanks and magazines to electoral campaigns. “What do you have to show for it?” is a reasonable question.

Since the nomination of Amy Coney Barrett to the Court, we have seen how a conservative institution — the Federalist Society — has been able to transform the political and legal landscape. We are not getting everything we want — the Court’s powers are quite limited — but the sense that the movement could only bang its head against an impenetrable wall in the Supreme Court has now been dispelled.

We have landmark rulings overturning Roe, seriously crippling affirmative action, restoring the constitutional understanding of the Second Amendment, and many other victories besides.

We may have a few more years to go. So far, the progressive legal establishment has not been able to adjust and find an ideological wedge to push Roberts and Kavanaugh or Roberts and Gorsuch toward rulings more favorable to their causes.

In fact, the opposite seems to be happening. The most formidable progressive justice on the court, Kagan, seems to be giving up as her colleagues flail in the role given to them. Sotomayor and Jackson are so far issuing a series of non sequiturs and clap backs that will have almost no influence on young progressive lawyers.