[palmer]

Thanks for the lengthy reply. I took Trump at his word from the beginning that he would try to make conservative choices in office. He also has some conservative tendencies (America first, tax cuts) along with some liberal tendencies . It will turn out that some of his choices will not be conservative, but as long as the important ones are (e.g. Supreme picks) I will be satisfied that I got what I paid for with my donation.

As for the back and forth in these threads, there are valid concerns about divide and conquer tactics by enemies of conservatism. There are people who will accuse anyone (like yourself) of being part of an effort to divide Trump from his base. What those folks should consider is that the media has been trying to divide Trump from his base since he came down the escalator. It hasn't worked.

Some accusations regarding divide and conquer are themselves divide and conquer. But I am willing to listen to anyone and I have a poor memory and try not to carry arguments from thread to thread. However your screen name is notable mainly because of the avatar. So I see it and might have something of a knee jerk reaction but not too often. Also there's utterly no reason for me to pile on with "I had the same thought" as another poster.

The bottom line is while you have a conservative view on just about every issue, Trump is a patchwork conservative. Also Trump is a less perfect human being than average. Has made his share of mistakes and will continue to do so. But he won based mainly on his ability to win, a tautology but a strong tautology. He's what we got for 8 years and I for one will enjoy the ride.

[Owen]

For the zillionth time

TRUMP IS NOT A CONSERVATIVE. He’s a populist and you should get down on your knees and thank God Almighty that he is, because a conservative could not have beaten Hillary.

He didn’t promise to staff up with only conservatives. Frankly, you don’t want him to. That’s an echo chamber.

As of now, he’s on thin ice derived ENTIRELY from the failure of the Obamacare vote or non vote. Don’t sit around thinking you have have a majority. Hillary got more votes. What Trump has is Wisconson (barely), Michigan (barely) and Pennsylvania (barely). He doesn’t keep them with rightward drift. He keeps them by doing what he promised.

Build the Wall. Repeal and Replace.

He has failed one of those so far (well, both of those so far). They better happen or those 3 states don’t vote for him again.

When folks here start thinking about abortion and gay rights and whatever claptrap, they need to reread those two cornerstones of the campaign.

Build the Wall. Repeal and Replace. Everything else is so much distraction for the Rust Belt.