I do think Donald Trump has conservative instincts. I think he had anti-Obama instincts. I think he saw Obamacare, the Obama foreign policy, the Obama economic policies as harmful to America.
Matt SchlappI think where conservatives were wary of Trump is he had not advocated for conservative positions for decades. He had been more meandering in his politics, including being a Democrat, including writing checks to Democrats. I have said that it's impossible to say what a candidate is until they get to office, especially someone who has never been in office before.
Matt SchlappSome conservatives are traditionalists, and the idea of breaking things up and changing things is concerning to them at times.
Matt SchlappP.J. O'Rourke says that conservatives really hate government and every couple of years we put them in charge and then we're reminded how much we really hate government. We're not always necessarily great at the task of running government. We're the anti-government party. It actually makes some sense we're not so good at that. But you got to have basic competence in how you run the government, even in how you reduce its effectiveness in people's lives.
Matt SchlappYou know, when you don't have your real income, your take-home pay increase for a decade or a decade-and-a-half, it makes you awfully discouraged. And then when you see other things in society changing so rapidly, and you think that government is ineffective and unable to - incapable of taking steps, appropriate steps to make sure that America can lead, lead on the international stage and lead the international economy, I think that was so much of this.
Matt Schlapp