Just because YOU don't understand what I say does not imply that I do not understand what I say.
It indicates that you lack comprehension.
My style is not intended to convey surface ideas. My style is provocative and most certainly annoying to those feeling themselves on the wrong side of the bullseye.
So I make a distinction between a conservative with principles for America and a Principled Conservative out to screw America.
A friend pointed out to me here once that I was being needlessly provocative. I had to stop and think about it, and I realized he was correct. I wanted to be thought-provoking, but I wasn't; I was provocative, and needlessly. I wasn't making people think, I was putting people on the defensive. I'm sure I still do that, but I try to be more self-aware and more balanced in what I say.
So take this as friendly input
@Sled Dog that your style isn't "provocative" in a useful way, it's "provocative" in a way that will prevent you from gaining influence. I've never had the opportunity to have a drink with my friend
@roamer_1, but I suspect he would join me in a shot of bourbon or scotch rather than a glass of chardonnay. You don't do yourself any favors by suggesting that his insistence on complete Conservatism - political, fiscal, federal, social, moral, and spiritual - is somehow less robust or less reliable or less American than your more focused version of it.
Having said that, I think you've got some excellent rules-of-thumb listed for the *political* dimension of Conservatism in your list slightly upthread; I can't see anything there I disagree with, and I sorely wish the R establishment would read your list and take it to heart. But your list only goes so far.
I know I'm kind of pedantic about it, but I'd say that "Conservative principles" are ideas, some political and some not, that we consider self-evident - don't spend more than you make; respect the wisdom of the people who came before us even if we don't understand it until we're much older; acknowledge that Man is not the supreme intelligence or moral arbiter in the universe; acknowledge emotion but act on thought; realize that individual convenience and pleasure are not supreme; recognize that a community must have shared moral values, and that they descend from the spiritual, or else it isn't a community; understand that Man is flawed so his authority must be severely limited. I'm sure there are others but I offer these just as examples. These principles aren't merely political, and without them the merely political is doomed to fail, and to fail in every way - politically, fiscally, socially, and in terms of security.
There certainly are people who declined to support Trump and cited principle as their reason. I was one of those people in 2016, I wasn't in 2020. But in neither year was I an ally of the Ds or someone who wanted less than the best for the people of this country, I just made a different calculation about what was achievable, what was the down-side risk, and what was the significance of my individual vote. My calculation was different, but my principles weren't, and I'll stand next to roamer_1 every day and twice on Sunday arguing that if we don't have principles we don't have anything.
And at some level I suspect you actually agree.
