[Vermont Lt]

If you think Trump will be a president like Reagan, you are going to be disappointed.

I am voting for the guy. But Reagan was a well polished politician by the time he ran for the White House. He also was the epitome of a conservative.

[Rockingham]

I wrote that I hope Trump wins and "is a success like Reagan," but I have no expectation that Trump's program would duplicate Reagan's other than on core issues of cuts in taxes and regulation and a rebuilding of our national defense. In style and on other policies, I expect that Trump would often be reminiscent of Teddy Roosevelt more than of Reagan.

This would not necessarily be for the worse. Conservatism had become stagnant, with a narrow range of rhetoric drawn from the country club, Ivy League debate societies, and evangelical preaching. And winning issues like immigration and the loss of blue collar and middle class jobs were shunned due to ideological rigidity and vetoes based on donor class interests. Trump though talks like an ordinary person and has broken through the boundaries of conventional conservative political calculation.

Trump's campaign did not so much defeat Bush style conservatism as expose its shallowness and deserved discredit among the public. As Trump's success made clear, the judgment of the country is that the Bush II presidency ended in failure, responsible for a combination of economic collapse and job loss, unrestrained illegal immigration, and costly foreign military misadventures that did not clearly enhance the security of the country.

Even if Trump loses, he will have forced conservatives to turn the page from the Bush and even Reagan eras. Plain, direct speaking, populist rhetoric, and a firm hold on winning issues will be recognized to be the winning formula.