Thesis: Winning elections is pointless when the culture and the people themselves are corrupt. A few people at the top won’t be able to change the character of an entire nation. We have to build a better society from the ground up.

Antithesis: Any effective cultural change must go through the centers of power and influence; elites alone have the power to change society. All of the largest social changes of the last century were imposed from the top down.

Possible syntheses:

A. Change in a leftist direction can be effectively top-down, as all they need to do is tear things apart rather than build them up. Change in the other direction must be bottom-up.

B. You can effect social change from the bottom up, but only if you form a separate mini-society with its own set of elites who are independent of the larger social structure. It helps if your smaller society has way different celebrities. You can’t save the whole vineyard, but you can be a fruitful bough whose branches run over the wall.

C. Revolution and mass defenestration of elites is our only option.

Any other possibilities I’m missing? I recognize these are not all mutually exclusive.