For the past couple of years, I have been a staunch Ted Cruz admirer and supporter.  Ted Cruz was the consummate outsider.  He consistently stood in front of, and opposed, Barack Obama, Harry Reid, and the feckless members of our own Republican Party.

I was extremely displeased by “The Donald’s” behavior toward Ted Cruz and, really, many of the candidates generally.  Politics is a dirty game.  I get that, but so many of Donald Trump’s attacks were childish and unnecessarily personal.

To say that Donald Trump’s past behavior makes it hard now to inspire enthusiasm, and allegiance to party unity, is an understatement.  I am loath to jump on the Trump Train.

Donald Trump has taken positions that, as a conservative and a Christian, will make it very difficult for me (personally) to support him.  I perceive Donald Trump as a moderate Republican at best, and in other cases, who knows?

I have many #NeverTrump friends.  To say this has been a hard week for them (us) is also an understatement, but what I have tried to communicate to them, and I hope gets elucidated here, is, electing a president is not (just) a moment-in-time thing.  In our representative republic, we have an obligation to inform, and yes, insist that our elected (and nominated) representatives advance principles that we desire (as We the People) to have advanced.

If we (as many of my aforementioned #NeverTrumpers) choose to withdraw from the process, or worse, kneecap our best bet at beating a far worse Democrat candidate, in Hillary Clinton, then we cannot be upset when Trump doesn’t take “our principles” into consideration, as he advances through the process.

We must continue to advance our principles, and must also continue to insist that Trump advance our principles as well.  If we are not in Trump’s ear, someone else will be.

Donald Trump has been moved off frankly dumb positions.  It must be presumed that he can be brought around on other issues as well.  We should continue to make our case for conservative values.  For Trump’s part, I’m hopeful (albeit ever so slightly) that he makes a positive effort to reach out to the party’s conservative base.

The next handful of weeks will be telling.  He (and Priebus) may ask for party unity – their actions, not their appeals, will determine their commitment to said unity.  For our part, we must be prepared to allow for the possibility that Trump might be a good president and/or, at least, nominally better than Hillary.

I am #NotYetTrump, but I am absolutely #NeverHillary.  My best bet in restoring our country’s prior greatness appears to be Donald Trump, but I’m going to continue to work to influence him (and the GOP) to advance the (conservative) principles that have worked in the past and can most certainly work in the future.