Buckley and Reagan for that matter are spinning in their graves right now, seeing Trump hijack the movement, and turning such a big chunk of our side into blithering lemmings.jumping through a carnival barker's hoop off the cliff.
Just last night Trump was even quoted that he could shoot someone and go up in the polls. Very sad to see that extreme level of arrogance and narcism. History will document 2016 as the Duping of Conservatives.
You have started with the premise that the past must dictate the future. That is the reason why conservatism has been losing. It's not theater, in which everyone must memorize their parts in advance. It's a knowledge and willingness to honor and accommodate our traditions, and the wisdom to grow with them, extending their reach. It's not, first and foremost, a prescription for etiquette. Even Martin Luther used poop language in his writings that changed the world. Passionate people break new ground, and it's not always pretty. Skeletons get dug up.
Traditional Americans have been backed into a corner by our polite requests for permission to speak or act, while the left has screeched "hater!" "bigot!" "phobic!" like mindless voice-activated jack-in-the-boxes, no matter how deep the research, authority, accuracy, innovation, predictive skill or creativity of our proposals. We need a leader unafraid to break the chains of the right wing's predictable submission and use them to beat the opposition into something resembling respect for our rights and our nation's survival, not just their lusts, greed, laziness, lying, stupidity and self-righteous do-goodism that ends inevitably in failure and corruption. Cruz's earnest lecturing, Carson's surgical delicacy and Jeb's spineless protests are not going to cut it.