Lately, overly-doctrinaire-type conservatives (including some right here) have been leavin' a very bad taste in my mouth.
The doctrinaire conservatives would lead us right down the road to defeat, so long as they never had to dirty their hands (and consciences) with the grime of reality, laced with a little pragmatism.
That's a distinction that sticks in their craws, worse than the tinges of angst they feel in their bones whenever Mr. Trump tweets another zinger.
But he fights to win, unlike they -- who fight to lose. And then bow out with a smug grin believing that they never "compromised their principles".
I prefer not to call myself "a conservative" any longer.
Rather, I think of myself as a "traditional-minded American" (with cultural/moral standards from the fifties).