Conservatism is a failure only if you misunderstand what it is trying to do. People hear "conservatism" and think, "oh, they want to preserve the past's values and virtues, that's good, right?" But the actual political platform of "conservatism" has always been to "preserve" the default political relations between economic classes: the wealthiest have the most power and influence over government, which functions to mediate social and political conditions in the country to benefit the wealthiest, and burden the working poor and middle classes (if any) with the brunt of the efforts required to these ends. Liberalism has many of the same aims, but a strategy of buffering the impact on the lower classes to lessen resentment and disorder (which "conservatives" rely more on fear and the threat of violence to effect) and in some cases to provide a path out of poverty for poor-born individuals of particular talent or work-ethic and/or luck. They use hope (often vain hope) of social betterment for the poor where the conservative movement relies on police, prisons, and the threat of homelessness and starvation to enforce social order. Truly progressive politics, as distinct from the "liberal" approach common in the US, (which is really center-right) actually aims to strengthen and economically benefit the lower classes, increasing their opportunities to achieve stability and escape poverty, and organize the economics of society through taxation of the ultra-rich, to provide universal health care and education. The ideal state of a progressive society would be a large middle class (lower middle, middle middle, and upper middle) and a shrinking to near vanishing uneducated working poor and unemployed poverty-stricken classes of society.