“... a fiscal conservative? A social conservative? A national defense conservative? All three? If one must be all three to considered a “true conservative”, and we are going to chase out anyone that does not measure up, we are in trouble.”
You’re conflating the Presidential nominee or candidate with the “conservatives” that vote for them.
The trick is to do exactly what Reagan did...he was a fiscal, social, and national defense conservative: what he accomplished was to form a voting coalition of all three as his base of support.
It is not unreasonable that conservatives seek and attempt to nominate a “3 legged conservative”.
We will not get ever single issue perfect but they should be conservative generally in all 3 areas.
I agree, and I believe most of the candidates running and considering running meet that qualification. However, I see way too many people on here castigating and tearing down another candidate AND his/her supporters because they are not "true conservatives" as THEY define the term, meaning that the candidate does not agree with them on every issue. I am not talking about pointing out and disagreeing on political issues - I am talking about the screams of "RINO", "liberal", "troll" and the like that are hurled on this forum all the time.