Maybe I'm wrong, but I have a sad hunch that many people who voted for Donald Trump in New Hampshire fully understand that he is not a conservative and would be a terrible president because of his thin skin and childish nature. But they did not care about the consequences because they are so angry at the GOP establishment that they just wanted to send a forceful message of protest.
I share anger at the GOP Establishment also but there will be very bad consequences for all conservatives if Trump were actually elected. Here are just some reasons why. His sister, Federal Appeals Judge Maryanne Barry Trump, shown with Donald in the picture at right, is an extreme left-wing judge with a radical pro-abortion record. But Donald said last month she would make "a phenomenal" justice of the Supreme Court. If Donald really thinks her opinions are in the main stream of the GOP conservatives, he is wrong.
He has said recently he favors a Canadian-style single payer health care system which is far worse than Obamacare and close to the Bernie Sanders socialist position. In the South Carolina debate on Feb. 13, Trump claimed he was the only GOP candidate who opposed the invasion of Iraq. But no fact-checking news organization can find any documentation for his claim and he will not offer one himself when asked.
The only time he made any statement on the subject was in 2003 when he told Fox News that President George W. Bush was doing a good job but should wait for the UN to act first. But he reversed himself in the Feb. 13 debate and implied that he then thought Bush should have been impeached. He also implied that the fall of the World Trade Center was the fault of Bush because it happened in September following the Bush inauguration.
Like most demagogues, he again offered no proof but made the claim anyway. The truth is that Trump is a very liberal Democrat who is trying to pretend to be a populist conservative to fool as many conservatives as he can.
But the real-world cost of a pro-Trump protest vote based only on anger at the establishment is very high and will do nothing to defeat even worse left-wing alternatives in 2016.