What I am starting to understand is that what you and I considered Conservative, you know that smaller government, economic growth kind of stuff, is not what most so-called conservatives had in mind.
That has become abundantly clear. Many so called Trumpster conservatives are only for smaller government when it is cutting programs they don't like. Obama proposed massive infrastructure spending in the form of the Stimulus and it was universally ridiculed here. Trump also proposes massive infrastructure spending, but suddenly that counts as "Making America Great Again".
The truth is many Trump followers are really more populist protectionists (with some nationalism thrown in) than they are conservatives.
I do not believe it likely that Trump is the nominee at the end of the day, but his candidacy sure has exposed the fact that many grass roots supposed conservatives really aren't that conservative at all.