Conservatives Gather in Denver to Gripe About Trump

This weekend, the RedState Gathering took place in Denver, Colorado. The annual conservative conference was apparently not a joyous celebration this year, as most of the attendees are firmly in the NeverTrump movement. According to the Washington Post, only a single “Make America Great Again” cap could be found in the audience.

“I’m playing for the team,” said the 21-year-old wearer of that cap – a man named Alex Iscoe. “If the team doesn’t win, we get four more years of Obama, basically…or worse.”

But for most of the speakers, the thought of President Donald Trump seemed to be just as terrifying as the thought of President Hillary Clinton.

“I know as a recovering alcoholic that the truth will set you free,” said radio host Glenn Beck. “This election is between two choices that suck.”

Trump himself was not invited to attend the event, making this the second RedState Gathering in a row to snub the billionaire. Instead, the stage was packed with conservatives like Beck, Sen. Ben Sasse, RedState editor Leon Wolf.

At the same time, though, some of the invitees understood the gravity of what could happen if Hillary were elected in November. At one point, after tearing into Obama for several minutes, former U.S. ambassador John Bolton said, “The single greatest threat to national security is sitting in the Oval Office. The second-greatest threat is coming right behind him, unless things change dramatically.”

Unfortunately, the real greatest threat facing this country is not Obama or Hillary. The greatest threat is that “conservatism” as an ideology could become so fractured and splintered that it can no longer be a coherent force in the direction of our government. And if you take a close look at what’s been going on for the last decade or more, you might find that it’s not really a threat at all: it’s a reality.

Donald Trump didn’t barge onto the scene claiming he was the new voice of conservatism. He didn’t try to convince anyone that his brand of conservatism was the one true strain. He’s barely mentioned conservatism over the past year.

What Trump represents is an opportunity to give conservatism a chance again. That can only happen when the old, rotted wood is cleared out of Washington and out of the White House. Life moves in cycles. The earthquake and the rebuilding. The flood and the restoration.

To get to the point where true conservatism actually exists as something other than a “theory,” we have to destroy the evil that prevents it from shining through.

Trump is the perfect weapon.