These days, many conservatives are wondering just how we got to the point where so many government agencies are riddled with people who seem willing to misuse their power for political gain. This has been the case not just in the bowels of the State Department or EPA but even in some areas of law enforcement and the intelligence community. While most of this can be traced to leftists’ penchant for power, one thing didn’t help matters: In far too many arenas of society, conservatives simply ceded the field — often without a fight.

The first field too many conservatives abandoned was pop culture. We’ve discussed the disparity before, but the entertainment industry can bring a lot of influence to bear on the issues, and entertainers give the Left a huge storytelling advantage, also known as “the narrative.”

But those fields aren’t the only ones the Right yielded. In higher academia, conservative professors are often mercilessly hounded until they are compelled to quit — or worse. (See the tragic case of Mike Adams.) These days, the few conservatives who work in higher education are isolated, fighting lonely fights with barely any support. At any point, phony charges of racism, sexism, etc. can be used to end a conservative professor’s career — even with tenure.

We don’t need to look far to see how those consequences mount for conservative professors and students alike. When college is the gateway for becoming a doctor, lawyer, or a vast number of other professions (including government work), professors and administrators become gatekeepers to those career paths.

That gatekeeper status has been abused in multiple ways, whether to freeze out conservatives or to engage in racial discrimination. Is anyone surprised, then, that a blind eye is turned to threats of violence that drive a conservative student out? Oddly enough, those same administrators now are dropping the use of standardized tests — the data of which has been some of the strongest evidence of racial discrimination.

What do you suppose will happen to those students and prospective students who don’t comply with the latest demands of political correctness? Is it any wonder that more than half of conservative students plan to just be quiet and keep their heads down?

In a similar vein, K-12 education also was ceded. These days, expressing conservative views can get a teacher terminated. But we didn’t see actions against the teachers and students who used the Parkland massacre to stage a “walkout” in favor of gun control, which was far more disruptive.

High school teachers, principals, and counselors are gatekeepers for college admission, but so are administrators. They control the hiring, firing, and promotions of those who teach our kids. When leftist activists run public schools, conservative applicants often don’t have much of a chance.

That brings us back to government work. Whether at the federal, state, or local government levels, many conservatives don’t think about the career positions that are involved. Whether they prefer to be in the private sector or they don’t think they can make a difference, or even if it’s just a general aversion to government, they pass up on those positions (law enforcement and national defense are the two general exceptions).

The result is a bureaucracy that has become a threat to our freedoms. Why? Because when everyone in the office thinks conservatives are Nazis — often because they live in a bubble where they don’t even encounter conservatives in real life — it’s easy to give themselves permission to put their thumbs on the scales.

Does anyone think that the IRS’s Lois Lerner would have dared try what she did if there were conservatives in the organization who had the ability to preserve documents and pass them to trustworthy media outlets? Would “John Doe” have happened in Wisconsin if those plotting that nefarious abuse worried about whistleblowers? If leftists trying to destroy the NRA for the “crime” of opposing gun control worried that internal discussions could find their way to the public, would they have backed off? Would coworkers have gone along if they knew colleagues who were sympathetic to conservative arguments?

The cession of multiple arenas to the Left has generated a perfect storm where those in pop culture paint Republicans and conservatives in the worst light, and the portrayals broadcast by the media eventually convince others that they have to act “to save democracy.” The bubbles that were built didn’t just come from the Left’s efforts over decades (although it was the primary factor); they also came from indifference on the Right.

Because conservatives didn’t even show up for the battles that had to be fought long ago, they face harder battles today. Things can and must be turned around, but it will be a very difficult fight.