I agree with your sentiments entirely, in fact I have written years ago in my about page that the pusillanimous handwringing of conservatives when under attack is to be deplored. I believe the conservatives should fight back and fight back hard.
But they should not fight back like gutter Snipes, they should fight back with reason and with facts. In other words, they should fight back while acting presidential.
It is important to fight back over the right issues and a woman's appearance or her capacity to bleed from one or another orifice is not the right issue to preoccupy a man wants to be president of the United States.
I think more and more people are sharing your experience of being turned off more and more by Donald Trump the more of him they see.
The key to fighting back effectively is the quick two-second sound byte that punches the opposition in the face and hits the American voter in the gut or the heart, depending on where it’s aimed. Ronald Reagan knew this instinctively and tapped into it effortlessly. And he did so without going into the gutter, and I agree with you that rolling in the gutter is self-defeating. But look at some of Reagan’s classics:
“I have just passed legislation that outlaws the USSR. The bombing starts in five minutes.”
“Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall.”
On why he hadn’t had a summit with the Soviet premier for much of his first term: “I’d love to but they keep dying on me.”
And his classic line for Jimmy Carter: “There you go again.”
The public doesn’t have the time, the depth of knowledge, or the inclination to get tangled up with in-depth policy proposals. They want “hope and change,” or “Morning in America,” or “make America Great Again.” You and I want the details, but the mass of voters who will decide our country’s fate don’t need that. If the electorate really thought about policy details and their implications, “Under my plan, electric rates would necessarily skyrocket” would have sealed the 2008 election.
I want a candidate who hits back with a quick, devastating non-snarky rebuttal. Someone asked me last time who I wanted as a candidate, and I replied “Ronald Reagan.” Still true. but I’ll take someone who can do the above. I think Cruz can, not sure Walker can.