NeverTrumpers want to destroy conservatism because they think America doesn’t deserve to be saved.
That matters a lot more to them than who is President. We’ve figured it out.
I disagree. I think the neverTrumpers-—Jonah Goldberg, Benji Shapiro, Stephen Hayes, Guy (the Gay) Benson, Bill Kristol, Jay Cost, and Adrian Gray-—are all so invested in their 2015 “candidates of choice” that they still can’t admit that a) they made a big mistake, and b) that Trump can actually win.
Even this morning on Fox (”gollum, gollum”) Hayes was going on about how the new poll numbers really don’t mean Trump has done that well, only that Cankles has done that poorly.
There is also another big, big element and that is that these people all have a LOT to lose if Trump wins. Not just prestige, not just their “track records” (such that they were) but their insider status, their ability to talk to the candidate and the “camp” about what’s “really going on,” the invitations to the parties. Most of all they lose their ability to dictate to us what is “real conservatism.”
I do not think they hate America. They just hate America without them in charge of “our” values.