“They need to admit they were wrong.”
Yes, that’s the crux of it.
At one point, Dennis gives himself away when he says [paraphrasing] “...the charge that Trump is not a conservative... is no longer relevant and no longer true”
No longer true? Wrong Dennis, it isn’t that it is no longer true, it’s that it wasn’t true in the first place. You just didn’t see it - it was there in his campaign rallies, it was there in the policy statements, it was there in his choice of allies. You just missed it.
More than anything else, it was Trump’s talk of the 35% import tariffs that got conservatives on their high horses. In truth, it is a matter of gospel in conservative economic doctrine that import tariffs are bad - they punish only American consumers by raising prices. It was conservative heresy for Trump to say otherwise.
What ivory tower economic conservatives missed, and what Trump the conservative got right, was that taking such a purist free trade position is idealism - no different than passivists pointing out that war is a bad thing.
In fact, if you apply Reagan’s peace through strength doctrine to trade, you arrive at something a lot like Trumpism - free trade must be mutual - if trading partners are using currency manipulation and protective tariffs against you, you have to reciprocate - even if the goal is to carrot and stick your way back to mutual free trade.
That single issue got conservative purists (economic pacifists) off on the wrong foot with Trump and they have never owned up to their mistake.
Well, you nailed it.
Very well stated.