Conservatism cannot be hijacked

Neither conservatism not the Tea Party movement are going away. They haven't been hijacked, as some would say, by moderate (read liberal) Republicans or the Trumpists of 2016. While organizations may be taken over by people with a different set of principles than before, a set of principles cannot be hijacked. The principles of limited government with restrained spending and reining in of government agencies and their regulations are not going anywhere. Neither is the blueprint for proper governance, our Constitution.

While different political forces may gain control of the Republican Party, or any other party, a body of basic principles of political and economic science such as conservatism remains in perpetuity. It is people's adherence to those principles that is so fickle, coming and going like the change in speed and direction of the wind. While some would say that conservatism has failed, I would ask, when has it been applied? There hasn’t been a conservative President since Ronald Reagan, and he had to work with a Congress led by liberal Democrats and moderate Republicans. Conservative tax policies implemented at the beginning of the his administration were largely responsible for the economic recovery that occurred, but there wasn’t the required amount of Congressional support required to implement other conservative principles such as limiting the size and scope of government. In recent years, many have been elected under the banner of conservatism, but have gotten to Congress and then failed to take a stand against bloated government with its increasing indebtedness and more and more business-stifling regulation. Those who have stood, like Ted Cruz and others, have been continually undermined and ridiculed.

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Conservatism may have failed at becoming the way all government operates, but we have seen, in the last few years, conservative solutions being applied successfully in state governments like never before, and a growing caucus in Congress that has stood up for conservative policies, even to the point of Speaker of the House John Boehner resigning. Five years into getting entrenched liberal Republicans and leftist Democrats replaced by conservatives, and conservatism has failed? The alternative is bigger, more controlling government, and that is what we have gotten under both administrations in the 21st century. Donald Trump now says he is a conservative, but has given no indication he actually supports limited government. By supporting Trump, people are saying they trust bigger government as long as a take-charge guy is in control. But that approach to government has a poor track record. For example, Germany went for it in the 1930s, Venezuela in the 2000s, and Zimbabwe had an authoritarian government imposed on them in the late 1970s, leading them to the place of utter despair they are in today. Not that Trump would necessarily lead our nation to those extremes, but people are approaching politics and government in a manner that would necessarily lead to some kind of tyranny. People are saying they want Trump because they think he can be that beneficent dictator that sets everything right. The Trump phenomenon isn't because conservatism has failed, it's because it has been rejected in the hopes of a quick fix by another imperial presidency. Opposition to Donald Trump's candidacy as a Republican for President is not just coming from Republican Party leaders (the Establishment) who are only willing to support their hand-picked candidates who help keep them in power. Trump is borrowing the Republican Party for his own personal purposes. He has appeared to embrace conservatism and evangelical Christians because they are a core part of the Republican Party. But we have seen how they have been political targets of Trump in past years, with their opponents receiving campaign contributions from Trump, an example being Trump backing Mitch McConnell in his successful re-election bid against a Tea Party opponent. Many are opposed to Trump because they doubt the sincerity of Trump when he says he supports Tea Party and conservative principles. Their concern is that when Trump feels that he has it all sewn up, he will abandon and even turn on them, as he has done in the past.