Another Leading Conservative Struggles With Trump's Success

Michael Gerson is a regular opinion columnist for the Washington Post; he was also a speech writer for George W Bush.  In this op-ed he worries that the voice of conservatism on talk radio may have increased Donald Trump's chances to win the Republican nomination.  Rush Limbaugh states that Ted Cruz is the better conservative candidate but that Donald Trump is the best anti-establishment candidate.  Gerson equates an attack on the GOP establishment as an attack on conservatism and the Republican Party which is based upon conservative ideals.  Perhaps his real concern should be that a large segment of the GOP base is not really conservative.  Their connection to the GOP is not based upon the economic ideology that is central to the Republican Party's concept of conservatism.  They are social conservatives who oppose the liberal social values of the Democratic Party. Most of them do not subscribe to many of the conservative values described by Gerson.  The dilemma for the Republican Party is that they can't survive without their votes, but their attraction to Trump repudiates conservative principles that are dear to Gerson.