The die is set with Trump. That particular wreck has already happened. It will just take some time to fully unfold. How can the GOP credibly push family values again after this President? Or any sort of personal integrity or decorum? The issues with Trump are fundamental to his character. The only thing that can be done, or at least attempted, is contain the damage. The only way to do that is not corrupt yourself and others to excuse what it is. Then hopefully there's some credibility left, some fundamental principles, to support a decent candidate in the future. The last opportunity was squandered and can't be recovered.
My real fear with Trump all along is he would destroy what was left of the conservatives in the GOP and therefore the GOP itself. At least the GOP for a conservative. By the time Trump is done "conservative" is going to be a dirty word even on the right because it has been so debased.
You have spoken for many of us here,
@DB. Thank you.
No matter who mocks you for sticking to principles and values it is the right thing to do.
For as long as I have been alive, I have been proud to be a Republican; from Ike, through Watergate and Nixon and even though I was always more conservative than our Republican Presidents, I never felt betrayed by them. I cried when JFK won, and I was only 11 years old. I watched every moment of the Republican convention where Goldwater was nominated, and proudly campaigned for him in the 9th grade. I went door to door for Nixon in 68 as President of our college's Young Republican Club. I despised Jimmy Carter, and felt like the sun came out with Ronald Reagan. I also despised Bill Clinton and was thrilled when GWBush won (again knowing he was significantly less conservative than I), because I knew he would sanitize the White House.
In his second term, with a Republican Congress, I was in despair at the spending and overreach of government, but even in 08 and 12 I called myself a Republican, because in the trenches, there was only one party which stood for the moral values...."family values" that I consider so very important. I hated "big government conservatism" (how about that oxymoron?), but didn't get rid of my party label. I still had decency, dignity and morality to cling to, because the Republicans, though tainted with scandal, removed the dead wood. The Democrat party was the party that elevated degradation and praised immorality.
That ended in 2016. All the doubts I had about being a Republican came to a boil and I realized there was absolutely no hope in reviving the party.
I, like you, wonder how dirty a word "conservative" has become, and will become under Trump. He has already given the left so much legitimate ammunition that I fear we can never recover.
I know I will be mocked for this post, but I just wanted to thank you for continuing to say what a lot of (former) Republicans feel.
