You're not alarmed that people continue to support Trump no matter what he says?
It's alarming the great number of people that at one time considered themselves conservative have no issue with a candidate that more often than not has historically aligned himself with more liberal viewpoint. My experience has been when you try to bring up specific problems you have with the candidacy of Mr. Trump the response from supporters is emotional or void of substance.
He expresses himself in a way that indicates that he has no respect for opponents, and comports himself below the dignity of the office, not to mention a number of weekly flags that go up that make me wonder if he's a true conservative at all.
Washington is broken and needs to get fixed, I'm not sure Trump is the answer. This election cycle has been extraordinarily eye-opening to me concerning my own "side" as well. The fact that they so quickly abandoned the principles that mark conservatism for a bombastic personality reinforces the dismaying tendencies I've newly observed.
The ONLY thing I was challenging was painting with broad strokes, and maybe to a lesser degree, what I see as "poo-pooing" of people who are supporting a candidate based on REAL beliefs (about him) due to REAL issues, perceived or otherwise.
Kevin Williamson, once my favorite writer on NRO, wrote a detestable article about Trump supporters and his interpretation of what motivates them. He's one I wouldn't have expected that from, so with that, along with the characterization by many on that site, this site, and other areas where I may "look around," comes for me a real anger.
Does Kevin know better? Do you? If you think you do, then I don't see any difference between you and the LIBs that want to tell us how to live. Respectfully, I've got a sh*t sandwich for people like that.
It also brings to light, for me, the disconnect in "listening" to the issues by many on the Right. So, instead of speaking to the problem, to the very personal anxiety that many feel, we (?) speak soothing words of what we're going to do to make it all better. Yet the people who are hearing the speechifying realize they haven't been listened to.
I'm heartened by the fact that I believe Trump FORCES established politics to look at some problems that have not only been ignored in past decade or 2, but exacerbated. Do you THINK that people want to elect a President who says one thing, then does another? Probably not, but I'd submit that re-electing Obama is pretty proof positive that the virtue of speaking one way and following through doesn't amount to much in the eyes of many, say, 53% as a floor, including a few board members of impeccable integrity.
So what does? A few thoughts...
Pulling the lever for a candidate that is speaking to an issue that indicates they may be listening.
People have been belittled, lied to, and mischaracterized to an extent that some are willing to elect a liar who admits he lies instead of liars that try to pretend they don't. "Better the devil that I know than the devil that I don't know."
I'd further submit that those that are supporting Trump are not the "conservatives" that vote the way they do on
well-defined principle and are rather those who have "leanings" but are generally open and/or disengaged....anxieties that are being spoken past by "core candidates" of both parties....and possibly some anger at a feeling of betrayal, by almost everybody.
And while they know that Trump isn't like them, very few are, they also believe that he's not like "them," the career political class who don't seem to bring solutions, who do mischaracterize subgroups of people, and do generally seem to make matters worse.
I'd lastly (for now) offer that some of the aforementioned conservatives who actually do vote on principle, are tired beyond belief of the flip flopping of core conservative candidates once they take office, the seeming inability or unwillingness to put up a fight against LIBs, and the slow, retarded way that core conservative candidates maneuver.