Mar 28, 2016 2 min read

In the March 16 Observer-Reporter, columnist Mona Charen applauds conservatism and its accomplishments, primarily blocking the following: cap and trade; universal Pre-K; paycheck fairness; expanded unemployment benefits; a higher federal minimum wage; varieties of gun control; mandatory paid sick leave; a tax on multinational corporations; higher taxes on wealthy individuals; and approving the Keystone Pipeline and the Trans-Pacific Partnership.

I agree that these positions represent true conservatism. The real problem Charen and fellow true conservatives have with Donald Trump is that he’s exposing, to the huge portion of the Republican base supporting him, that true conservatism doesn’t serve their best interests. Poll after poll shows that the majority of Republicans stand opposed to the interests of true conservatives on most of the issues I mentioned.

Writer Matt Taibbi said it best in a recent issue of Rolling Stone: “What these tweedy Buckleyites at places like the (National) Review don’t get is that most people don’t give a damn about ‘conservative principles.’ Yes, millions of people responded to the rhetoric for years. But it wasn’t because of the principle itself, but because it was always coupled with the more effective politics of resentment. Big government liberals are to blame for your problems … But the fact that lots of voters hated the Clintons, Sean Penn, the Dixie Chicks and whomever else did not ever mean that they believed in the principle of Detroit carmakers being able to costlessly move American jobs overseas by the thousands.”

Working-class Republicans who support Trump understand that conservative positions on privatizing Social Security, corporate inversions, lobbying, secretive and unlimited campaign spending and union busting. All this, along with all the conservative “accomplishments” Charen cited, harm many while benefiting a select few. Good on Trump for shedding light on at least part of the con.

A quick comment on establishment Republicans who have come out against Trump because they say he is a racist – if it weren’t for racists, the only presidential election Republicans would have won since Richard Nixon blew out George McGovern in 1972 would have been Ronald Reagan’s win over Walter Mondale in 1984.

One victory in over 40 years. I’d be careful who I risked alienating.

Don DeAngelis

Canonsburg