The problem with being a pragmatist is that you solve problems without regard for underlying beliefs. You look for the most effective and efficient ways to solve a problem and go towards that.
For example
Problem: medical costs have gotten too high.
A pragmatic way to solve that would be to put price controls on the cost of medical care.
Does that sound like a good idea?
Sorry, but many “solutions” would have us betraying the very things that make us a great nation.
In my opinion, that is opposite of what a pragmatist would do.
Price controls is what a socialist, politician would do to solve the problem. There are legions of examples of politicians doing that.
As a person who worked in business for many years, a pragmatist, i think I am one, sees a problem, identifies it and then proceeds to find a meaningful solution that works. That is not to say the solution is set in stone, but the solution gets things moving forward again to continue to meet the mission.
And, a big and is that as things progress the solution is constantly analyzed is appropriately tweeked to be more efficient.
I have to disagree with your medical costs example: If one is a ‘principled conservative’ as I consider myself to be, then conservatism and pragmatism can intersect. Using your example, if medical costs are too high and one is a conservative, price controls are far from pragmatic. Any conservative knows that price controls distort the markets and create shortages, underinvestment, inefficiency and rationing, and eventually the markets find ways to thwart them, usually resulting in higher prices than before. How is it pragmatic to do something that doesn’t work? The pragmatic approach would be to eliminate ObamaCare, allow carriers to compete freely across state lines, dismantle the powerful crony health insurance big pharm lobbies and pass sensible tort reforms. While doing these things, I don’t care if a politician invokes conservative principles or uses conservative jargon.
I think there is a valid argument that someone like Trump may, by being pragmatic, behave in ways consistent with conservative principles, even while not invoking them, thinking about them or using the correct jargon. If he fires half the government employees on his first day as president, I don’t care if he does it in order to “limit the scope of government to those roles enumerated in the constitution” or simply because they are “incompetent”. If he eliminates the federal reserve fiat currency scam, I don’t care if it’s because it’s unconstitutional or if it’s simply because “we’re getting ripped off”.