I have read a lot of threads over the last few months... I am a life long conservative and have enjoyed the discussions here for many years and still do. I enjoy conversing with other conservatives with different views than myself. Even the recent nastiness hasn’t discouraged me. And I have been the target of some pretty nasty comments over the past few months, even before I had decided on my candidate.
It is actually more than a little amusing to hear the griping from the only “true conservatives” on the site, the Cruz supporters. It was their vicious attacks on Sarah Palin after she endorsed Donald Trump over Ted Cruz that offended me enough that I no longer wanted to be associated with the exclusive club of “true conservatives” here.
I do not remember reading one comment from a Trump supporter saying that they would not vote for Cruz if he won the nomination. It seems like about every other thread here has at least one post from a Cruz supporter saying that he will sit out the election if Trump prevails. It was also Cruz supporters who tried to form some type of alternative site and have claimed multiple times that they are being treated unfairly by the moderators.
At times I have suspected that some of the nastiness was actually orchestrated by the team of social media experts hired by the Cruz team. If that actually was to turn out to be the case it would just demonstrate how little they care about a resource that has been nurtured for such a long time that has been such an important asset to the conservative community in this country.
It's the "Conservative Shaming" that created my animus. Everyone supporting, and associated with Ted Cruz was engaged in it.
It's just another version of "Holier than thou" and the reaction of all people will always be the same.
Orthodox Conservatism was defined in the 50's. It's now being redefined.
Our founders would be pleased, as the new version is closer to how they saw the world. And that world was not:
Free Trade.
Foreign wars.
Open Borders.
Multiculturalism.
Bailouts.
That's the legacy of Conservative Orthodoxy as defined in the 50's.