When a person is steeped in the ideas of Jefferson, Adams, Madison, and Washington, it just "naturally" slips through in the ideas they convey. Remember Reagan?
Do Republicans seriously want to conserve America's constitutional principles? Or, are they just objecting to Democrats? Do they have a passion for liberty? Is this just about changing the Party in power, or is it about preserving freedom?
If their concern is for convincing enough voters to reject the idea of "a government big enough to give you everyting you want" and turn to advocacy for "a government small enough to allow you freedom to keep most of what you earn," then they'd better get busy seeing that someone is nominated who has been "marinated" (to use an applicable word coined by Ingraham prior to the 2008 election on "The Factor") in the Founders' ideas (isn't that what conservatives purport to "conserve"?).
To whatever degree Trump or the other candidates display a lack of immersion, each has been "successful" in benefiting from those founding ideas, and though they may recite familiar words and phrases from patriotic speeches and songs, that is different from understanding and being able to call up and articulate the philosophy which made such freedom and opportunity possible.
Ronald Reagan's life and letters reveal that he had "immersed" himself in those ideas for years before he agreed to run for President,, and, though he may have joined the Democrat Party for a time, that immersion in founding ideas allowed him courage to change, and that is why he could set "issues" in light of constitutional "principle." and explain his advocacy or rejection of solutions by that light.
Some candidates couch their answers to questions in a manner which indicate personal pursuit and understanding of the Constitution's protections, each in his/her own way.
What America and the world desperately need now is a leader who successfully can articulate and distinguish the ideas of liberty underlying their Constitution from the competing "progressives'" "counterfeit ideas" of tyranny cloaked in words that may sound like justice and fairness, but throughout the history of nations have led to oppression and misery.
The hour is late: "politics as usual" must not win the day. Can some good and decent candidates who embrace founding principles come together quickly, combine their efforts as the Founders did in order to help to create a "passion" for liberty among citizens sufficient to defeat the counterfeit ideas which are leading the Republic to ruin?
The following is excerpted from "Our Ageless Constitution," p. 181, or here, in an essay entitled "Will the Great American Experiment Succeed?" co-authored by Dr. Russell Kirk.
"It was John Adams who said: "The foundation of every government is some principle or passion in the minds of the people." Clearly, the Founders' passion was liberty, and in order to secure that liberty, they sought out and incorporated into the United States Constitution those ideas and principles embodied in the Declaration of Independence.
"The French historian, Guizot, once asked James Russell Lowell, "How long will the American republic endure?" Lowell replied: "As long as the IDEAS of the men who founded it continue dominant."
"Herein lies the answer to the question, "Will the Experiment Succeed?"
"It can and will succeed IF the motivating "principle or passion in the minds of the people" is LIBERTY, and if that passion causes them to exert the determination and will to complete the needed restoration of the IDEAS upon which the great American experiment was based." ---(End of excerpted material)
i hate to say this to somebody as sincere and erudite as you seem to be but:
Trump is all we got. Stop looking for Thomas Jefferson; he’s dead.