I remember all the accusations that Trump was a grifter who spoke conservatism as a second language, but somehow he's always the one in the trenches during the big battles while the True Conservatives either take a powder or train their guns on their allies.
Stipulate for a moment that Trump is more of an opportunist than a true believer in conservatism. If that's the case, he at least listened to GOP voters and picked out a few deliverable issues he could work for. If he's buying the GOP, at least his policy checks aren't bouncing.
Some of Trump's efforts to deliver for the GOP have failed, and in some cases there were strategic errors on his part, as with Obamacare repeal. Some of those errors were due to political inexperience or a lack of enthusiastic help from the GOP caucus. But he clearly TRIED.
The two big things Trump has done right are refusing to accept Democrat narratives, the way they frame issues, and choosing battles that will have real long-term payoff for conservatives. Those are the two things his devoted True Conservative enemies tend to get wrong.
The TrueCons are much too quick to accept Democrat political framework and narratives, usually because they think fighting the tide is impossible due to the Dems' overwhelming media advantage. They're accustomed to playing defense, angling for the "righty" seat on roundtables.
Crucially, the TrueCons accept the left-wing premise that populist passion from the Right is evil. Lefty gets a free pass to say whatever he wants, demonize whoever he has to, toss populist hand grenades every day. The Right must remain seated with hands folded primly in laps.
And Trump's dedicated TrueCon opponents never seem to understand the stakes in pivotal battles to shape political culture. They scratched their heads and wondered, "Why not feed Kavanaugh to the Dem beast and just pick someone else? We'll get the seat no matter what."
They didn't understand the real stakes, the damage that would be done by showing weakness and allowing a character assassination to succeed, feeding blood to the left-wing mob. They didn't see how much damage Dems would do to themselves with the Kavajihad. But Trump did.
Trump's not a "movement conservative," sure, although I think he's been moving in that direction since taking office, in part because the Left goes out of its way to infuriate him 10 times a day. If he's trying to buy conservatism with policy concessions, give him an invoice.
Because if one thing is clear at the halfway mark of his first term, it's that Trump - strange visitor to conservatism from another world - is delivering more than previous leaders endorsed by the true believers, including me, and that was without the GOP unity he has now. /end
