There a great deal of truth to her indictment of populism.People don't want to vote, don't care what their elected representatives do in their name and are disengaged from public life are angry things haven't changed.
Frustration with our institutions and our parties has been channeled into a drive to burn them down.
Populism is not conservatism. Conservatives stand for incremental change and preserving tradition, not catering to the passions of the mob and unpredictable change.
Trump is a liberal. If he should get elected, conservatives may be disappointed with his conduct in office and his espousing policies the opposite of their professed principles.
People are letting their feelings cloud their sober judgment. If conservatives want to be ruled by the darker side of their nature, that is their right.
But they should not be fooled into believing the fury of the crowd equals a dispassionate and abiding respect for conservative values.
We're going down a road we can't see to where it leads and we might regret where we would wind up.
Oh sure, by all means, let's slow down change now that Socialism permeates every governmental function. That's a great plan.
Sure populism sucks when the people rally around an ant-American socialist, but you do not even allow for the opposite case of rallying around a pro-American capitalist. That's just as bad or worse than everything you just said worries you.
If you stop and think about it ...
... Saul Alinsky was precisely targeting you and Salena Zito with his rules for radicals. Were he still alive he would be jumping for joy at the tactical support you just gave him. The procedure? Ram through everything socialist and then when the pendulum swings back and the opposition gets in power call them out, hold them to their higher standards ( their "Conservative" beliefs ) and demand that they slow down, and work for incremental change. Meanwhile like a ratchet wrench, the bolts screwed into America remain tightened and later get screwed even tighter after the next pendulum swing.
Awesome plan.
We saw this back in 1995, when the Conservatives took over the 104th Congress and the liberal (D)ummycrats took on the role of doctrinaire Conservative to block or slow down every damn thing Gingrich and company tried to accomplish. A perfect role reversal. They even called them radicals who were moving too fast.
I don't know where this crazy definition of Conservative or the ridiculous word Conservatism comes from, but I know a pair of handcuffs when I see them. Using our higher standards against us is exactly what a doctrinaire Conservative might do, but also an enemy troll. It would have prevented the original American Revolution and practically every instance of pushback we can envision.
Furthermore, after reading countless examples of Alinskyism from our so-called friends I have to now renounce any association with these words Conservative and Conservatism as they have been co-opted by an anti-Nationalist and anti-American coalition of globalists. This is not what was envisioned by the founders, quite the opposite in fact. High income, estate and gift taxes, illegal aliens, no border, UN, K-Street, Offshoring jobs, Foreign entanglements. We didn't sign up for this.
When will the Conservative (C)oncern trolls realize that events have passed them by? The GOPe is now one half of the uniparty problem. They are in fact uniparty-deniers.
P.S. I can tell you from being in NY that Trump is *not* a leftist or liberal, but politically agnostic. He was an outsider to both parties here, alternating between (R) and (D) when it suited him, but not part of the Carey or Cuomo or Koch crime syndicates, and not part of the Rockefeller or Lindsay ( or Pataki ) cabals either. No-one up here, or anywhere else is without faults ( but feel free to point one out to me ) and I think his track record is a comfortable one of threading a needle in one of the most corrupt northeast liberal cesspools you can find.
It doesn't really matter anyway. Before you can build your castle you need to hire a wrecking ball to level the property. And many or even most of your fellow conservatives have figured that out. So that leaves you and a few others to believe that you are right and everyone else is just crazy.