Agreed. They have not proved they can be trusted to stay true to their ideals. My main fear with Cruz getting the nomination is that he would have been forced to concede his principles to the GOPe in order to finance the general election. I don't think Trump is a true-blue conservative but I don't know who is these days or who can remain true-blue given the realities of winning elections. I do think Trump will try to honor his promises, if for no other reason than his own ego. I suspect if he wins, we will be disappointed in much of what he does and we will have to hold his feet to the fire to keep him on the straight and narrow. But it is clear that the liberals have accomplished a great deal towards their agenda even with less-than-stellar liberals in the White House. We conservatives need to consider incrementalism ourselves, even just someone who will slow the lemming rush to annihilation.
The DemonRats spend decades slowly, incrementally advancing their goals. They do not insist on perfection from their candidates, only that their agenda is advanced in some way.
The conservative base however, has the habit of insisting on absolute perfection.
Trump is not perfect, but if he halts the slide and advances the conservative agenda in some small way then he is the better alternative. Every day that we survive, every day that we advance in some way is a day that we are winning.
I will take spending the next 20 years in fundamentally restoring America, one small step at a time, over giving up. A good example is the fact that gun carry rights have been incrementally advanced over the last 20 years. State by State, ordnance by ordnance. More States are open carry states now than there were 20 years ago. Not perfect - but we are winning that fight. And we did not make those gains by insisting on perfection.