I feel REALLY bad for conservatives...

Talk about a group without a party - the Republican Party has long abandoned the idea of small government. However, unlike the American Left, the American Right has at least a shred of puritanism - enough to where the movement doesn't backslide (or upslide, in the case of both political parties on the Authoritarian/Libertarian spectrum) away from its intended purpose. The libertarian movement has Puritan Rabies, which makes it incredibly difficult to organize a legitimate political movement ([i]you[/i] try getting elected when part of your ideological base doesn't even believe elections should be a thing). The conservatives have enough to where they're willing to nominate Trump - a dagger in the back of the Party that has left them behind. I'm not going to vote for Trump (don't worry, my state is guaranteed to go red), but I at least understand why many conservatives are eager to. Here's part of the problem, as I see it. Your typical conservative isn't a political ideologue. He's trying to live his life to its fullest extent, and he recognizes that a debt-ridden, authoritarian nanny-state is going to get in the way of that. He lives his life, and every election cycle he votes for the guy with the (R) behind his name. He might profess some moral outrage to certain decisions made by others - same-sex relationships, substance abuse, and anything outside of the traditional sphere. However, the movement has become increasingly tolerant of these things, in the sense that they don't necessarily want the state to legislate against them. Ben Shapiro is the template for what I call a "New Republican." The problem is that the guy with the (R) behind his name has been abusing his power in Washington. He doesn't reduce spending - he only slows down increases. He doesn't preserve his constituent's economic freedom, but he's more than happy to grandstand about all those social issues that people aren't so fond of. The GOP establishment overstretched its bounds, and the conservatives detonated a Trump-bomb. I'm curious to see what happens to the GOP. It's going to be divided, certainly. The Party abandoned its constituents, and now both the people [i]and[/i] the establishment are going to fall out of the ideological arena because of it.