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If you look at EVERY position he has brought up in the last year [...] he has moved right and sometimes very far right. [...] much like Reagan did from 1950-64. Reagan moved in large part due to the research he did on the GE tours, as well as what he heard from ordinary people at the plants. I am thinking Trump has gotten a very similar education through the campaign itself.

In short, I think Trump is doing in condensed fashion what RR did in terms of growing into a bona fide conservative.

My question to you, LS, is how you feel you can qualify real, genuine growth in the direction of conservatism as different from mere electioneering without any serious proof? Back in the day, you or I would sneer at such promises made on the stump, with little to back them up.

I mean, Reagan is incontestable - But that is because of more than a decade of thought put into action - You can see his mind changing, not only in the record of the media, but also in the record of his actions. By the time I was asked to vote for Reagan, I had a very predictable guarantee of his actions being true-blue. It is that record, more than his speeches, that made me very comfortable puling the lever for him.

How is it that I can find a similar guarantee of Trump's words?

There are never guarantees, anywhere. Did you know that even until the end of his life, RR never badmouthed FDR himself? He always thought FDR was a "good guy" and that the policies were wrong. RR's transition may have taken a decade . . . but it may have been very much quicker. The evidence in his SAG union leadership days, for example, suggests that he shifted his positions on many issues in foreign policy very quickly.

I think the best guarantee you have that Trump's positions are genuine is that given a chance to "pander" on an issue like Kelo, Trump once again said what he believed, that "eminent domain is a great thing." I know what he meant by that, but still it's nothing a conservative likes to hear. But by NOT saying what "people want to hear," I think it's clear that in fact he is speaking from his heart.

No one will know this, perhaps for years, but I think Trump had a very real "come to Jesus" moment early in his campaign. He said many times he was going to run on jobs, but the immigration thing kept coming up. I think once he got into the destructiveness of illegal immigration, it began to widen his perspective of every other issue. It drove him more and more toward a middle class perspective.

As for a long history of saying things, well, the one thing he has said for years and hasn't backtracked on was that he opposed the Iraq war. I thought it was absolutely necessary given the potential of WMDs there, but once again, he did so on the grounds that the ME was more stable with the dictators in power and that America needed to use its military power more selectively (but he is hardly anti-military). So in a number of things I think he is genuine and I don't ever get a sense he is saying anything to "appear" conservative.

It's ironic because as of now, Ted Cruz aside, Trump's stated positions and position papers on guns, immigration and taxes are more conservative than anyone else out there.