I have long been a student of Process Reengineering. This was a popular movement in the late 80s, with authors like Tom Peters, Edward Deming, and others.  The basic premise of Process Reengineering was that once-great businesses and/or institutions ‎had settled into operational ruts, relying on formulas that may have helped propel them to greatness but were now anchors to their competing in the rapidly changing dynamics of the 21st century.

Organizations are bureaucracies. Even in the smallest of organizations. Once a department is established, the primary purpose of the department is the continuation of the department. Bureaucracies are good for maintaining the status quo, or operating along a very narrow set of principles and guidelines. What bureaucracies are not particularly good at is being nimble. This, as the Process Reengineering gurus asserted, was a necessary component of the successful organizations of the future.

Which brings us to conservative think tanks. ‎Why do I propose that they're on their deathbed?

Simple - their existence is premised on "facts" and "reason." Their heyday was an era where we, as a society valued facts and reason.

Don't get me wrong, I'm a huge proponent of facts and reason, but I'm a bigger fan of salvaging our social, economic, and political culture. What solace is there to know that we're right while society collapses around us?

We were right about ObamaCare, welfare reform, the economy, global warming, defense, and gun control. We will be proven right on Same-sex Marriage, and it's militant approach to traditional believers, and the detriment to society.

‎Can there be any solace in the halls of conservative think tanks that they were "proven" right about any of these things while simultaneously seeing these ramparts fall in battle?

Would we compliment the brilliant play-calling of a football coach who saw his team go 2 and 10, year after year?

Michael Medved often opines how conservative John Boehner and other Republicans are, based on their vote patterns. Should I find comfort that the Speaker, and others have a 80+% Conservative voting record while I see liberal policy after liberal policy instituted, particularly while maintaining complete control of Congress?

As a proponent of "facts" and "reason", I wish these virtues held currency in 21st century America -- they don't.‎ Mobilizing people to the fight is the order of the day. We err in thinking that we can "reason" our way to compromise -- we can't. The Left are hell-bent on advancing their agenda. They long ago abandoned "facts" and "reason" and are pushing forward. The Left has tapped into "emotion", particularly envy and resentment. They have brilliantly "sold" the premise that they are working to settle the score. Social justice isn't justice, but to the aggrieved constituent, it is enough.

A battle rages across America. Conservatives are losing. ‎Not because we're not right but because we've done a poor job of rallying our people to the fight. We'll join a fight (Chick-Fil-A, Phil Robertson, etc), but when we think the battle won, we return to our homes, our work, our hobbies, and our places of worship. The Left regroups. They will continue to push, until they've fulfilled their agenda -- our cultural, economic and political destruction.

Think tanks can and should continue to analyze our circumstances, but they must re-engineer around a new idea --- think first, but act now.‎ All the bright ideas in the world will be for naught, if we're not in the streets fighting for our survival. Survival is not hyperbole. Man has not always been free. We, as a society, are but a handful of generations removed from being ruled by an omnipotent king. There has always been those, who have desired to rule, and those content to be ruled.

Is freedom fleeting? Are we content to be "dead right?"

Think, sure. But act now. We fight here. We fight now, or as Ronald Reagan said; "we sentence our children (and their children) to 1,000 years of darkness."