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Promoted from the diaries by streiff. Promotion does not imply endorsement.
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It is a well known fact that the political Right in America has always embraced and tolerated more intellectual variety than can ever exist on the Left.  And although a strategic advantage, it is a tactical failure.

Trump is the momentary manifestation of a fight that has been brewing well before Trump between the base and the establishment.  It is the establishment that panders to the base with words before an election, then fails to deliver once elected.  This was the obvious game plan in 2016 until Trump came along and called them out.  The establishment never really delivered and Trump showed a new path for a base relentlessly let down.

Realizing their talk of principles would never work against a Neanderthal like Trump, they (the GOPe) abandoned ship.  They became unwitting, or perhaps witting, dupes in potentially allowing Hillary Clinton to appoint Supreme Court justices or doubling down on eight years of failed Obama administration policies.  People like David French at National Review became the poster child of the “muh principles” crowd although he and his ilk were hard-pressed to find anyone to fight for these principles, let alone implement them.  Seriously…the best they could do is Evan McMullin?

Instead, the establishment worked relentlessly (and still does) to undermine a man with whom they agree on policy about 80% of the time.  Yet, they seem determined to keep their ongoing streak going of not delivering on conservative policies and principles.  Considering that even when in control of both houses of Congress and the Presidency, Obamacare is still technically the law of the land, border security is a joke, and Planned Parenthood still gets $500 million from the government.  While Trump was delivering in other areas, our betters- the conservative establishment- still squeals.

Those who accuse others of abandoning principles (the NeverTrumper versus everyone else) are the ones without the principles.  That is, whereas we stand for principles upon which this country was founded and are willing to fight for them, the principles of the elite was to gain and maintain power.  So now our alleged intellectual betters align themselves with the Left and shout that anyone who disagrees with them is motivated by racism or xenophobia.  Suddenly, those who support Trump the President, not Trump the man, are a danger to the republic.  In reality, we are a danger to the elites and they don’t like it one bit.

The truth is that base Republicans and conservatives support most of the things the establishment claims to support, but we refuse to roll over for the Left.  The problem is that the establishment Republicans are too fixated on Trump that they have forgotten the true enemy.  As proven since they took over the House, the Left is united in their efforts to transform America.  We either fight now, or suffer a slow death by a thousand cuts with the establishment making the case.

This is not even about Donald Trump.  It is who will stand up and fight for the base.  This is not a racial (i.e., white thing) or a religious thing (i.e., Christian).  It means being blind to color, sex or religion.  It means having the ability to pursue happiness without the heavy hand of the state in your way.  The base does not bar or ban legal entry to the American Dream, but does demand that you accept responsibility for successes or failures, and believing the state has no business telling you how to act, what to think or say, or with whom to associate.  It also means that you earn your success in the American Dream without favoritism.  Most of all, it means not groveling at the feet of the nannies and totalitarians of thought on the Left.

Decades of the abandonment of these principles by the so-called principled conservative establishment elite caused the recent revolt that spurred an unlikely person- Donald Trump- not only to the Republican nomination, but also into the White House.  Instead, the NeverTrump faction is virtually indistinguishable from The Resistance now.  The failed Weekly Standard, a one-time conservative mainstay, has morphed into The Bulwark, a publication touting itself as “conservatism conserved” being funded by a Leftist billionaire.  That alone sums up the “principles” of the NeverTrump crowd.

The saddest part of this is that the NeverTrumpians lost sight of the real enemy- the Left.  We have trusted the establishment for too long and have been let down relentlessly.  The Left is certifiably nuts when it comes to Trump and rightfully so.  They have never encountered a fighter like this before.  But many on the Right must realize that it is not only Trump’s blood and head they are after.  The establishment conservatives may be the last meal in the belly of the Leftist alligator, but a snack nevertheless.