I have no doubt that someone can be a conservative AND a pragmatic, I just have doubts that Donald Trump is one of those.
I believe he is pragmatic, but I have serious doubts that he holds a conservative world-view.
He wants to find solutions to problems, and he is very good at doing so, but I don’t believe he is guided by principles that are based on the founding ideas and principles spelled out in the Constitution.
I believe he would be a very effective President, and I have hopes that his solutions to problems and his policies toward governance would be in line with conservative principles, but I have very serious doubts.
As was seen in this last debate, Donald Trump himself has trouble defining what a conservative is.
Does this not bother those who claim he is conservative and would govern as a conservative?
I am running into a lot of Trump supporters who are union democrats - in the past they were so frustrating to talk to about minimum wage, supply and demand, price controls - they would just spew the dem talking points but now they see the democrat party is not their friend. They see stupid sh!t happening and they don’t need to understand what conservative principle or what clause of the constitution is being violated. All they need to see is that it’s stupid and it has to end. They finally see it because of the way Trump talks. I am your typical principled conservative always talking about founding principles of limited government, unalienable rights etc. - I could never get through to anybody - but Trump does and I’m not going to complain - I think he might be our last hope.