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SunkenCiv: "Oh looky, more meme-building! And when it doesn't work, the agitprop specialists will do a one-eighty and start claiming that the one-term POTUS John Adams was the *precursor* of Donald Trump: "

I like John Adams, a lot.
For one thing, he was important in getting George Washington appointed commander of the Continental Army, in 1775.
But Adams was defeated for reelection in 1801 by a somewhat more populist politician, Thomas Jefferson.
No need to rehearse that election, except to say that Jefferson was Trump to Adams' Cruz.

But it does seem to me that another Adams, his son John Quincy, at first defeated, but then was also defeated by the populist "Trump" of his day, Andrew Jackson.

So, we can say that when populism opposes constitutionalism, populism often wins.
Then, somehow, the Republic survives, so maybe we'll survive Trump too.
But not Hillary, God help us, not Hillary.

Do not believe that there is any inherent conflict between the Trump approach & the Cruz approach. It is very unfortunate, that a war has broken out between the two, rather than simply go on with both approaches, and letting the Republican voters choose between them.

The fact is that the two approaches perfectly complement each other. Trump appeals to patriots and all who love traditional American values--which absolutely include reverence for the Constitution. Cruz appeals to those who want a candidate better able to actually explain the Constitutional mandates--which are absolutely compatible with (indeed perfectly reflect) traditional American values.

While I now support Donald Trump, I certainly want to heal the unfortunate chasm between two camps, whose difference is really only a slightly different focus; both camps essential to an American future.

Adams got GW appointed, and before that defended the British soldiers from the Boston Massacre, and for both of those things did great service. As president, he did just one thing that was of immeasurable positive service -- followed George Washington. But there was a reason he was a one-termer, and it wasn't because Jefferson and his closest associate in that campaign, Madison, introduced US politics to the kind of underhanded campaining we take for granted today. Well, not *only* because of that.

During his eight years in office, Jefferson paid down the US debt while cutting spending and cutting taxes. And of course, thanks to him, the US bought half the continent, and let us know that "we are all Federalists, we are all Republicans." And like so many others, he was much more popular at the end of his first term than he was at the end of the second.