So let me get this straight—Paul Ryan and some of his Capitol Hill cronies in the donor community and elite DC media mob are not sure if they will support the Republican nominee for President...the one who won the primary by beating all the other candidates and has already received more votes before the process is over than the GOP nominees in 2008 or 2012 had when it was concluded. In fact, they want the nominee to convince them that he is “worthy” of their support before they will pledge to support him instead of Hillary Clinton. The nominee is supposed to come to THEIR table with hat in hand to secure their “blessing.” After all, they aren’t sure that the nominee is conservative enough for them.

And we wonder what THEIR brand of conservative orthodoxy has done for America? The debt is larger, we have adopted job-killing trade and open border immigration policies that have devastated the middle class, the tax system is still a complicated mess, we are no closer to ending the scourge of the killing of unborn babies or selling their body parts like parts for a Buick, Obamacare is still funded, the Iranian nuclear deal has gone through, and Congress stands by watching as a President now shreds the 10th amendment by ordering every school district in the nation to allow boys to go into female locker rooms, dorms, restrooms, and changing rooms.

Instead of asking the Republican nominee to come and “prove” his conservative bona fides, perhaps we should ask the DC insiders just what their version of “conservatism” has done to make America stronger, better, freer, more prosperous, and (let me borrow a term), greater.

Of course, they have to investigate if the nominee is really who he says he is. Because isn’t that what they did when Mitt Romney ran? When he ran claiming to be a “severe” conservative (whatever that is), but who had created RomneyCare (the template for Obamacare), who marched in gay pride parades and whose governorship welcomed the first same-sex weddings in American history; who had boasted on television in his Senate race with Ted Kennedy that he was more pro-choice than anyone and proved it by hosting Planned Parenthood events and contributing to them; who puffed that he didn’t vote for Reagan or identify with THOSE Republicans; and who didn’t release his own tax returns until just before the election of 2012.

I was his opponent in 2008 and beat him, only to lose to John McCain. But in 2012, when he won the nomination, I vigorously campaigned for him, and I never insisted he have a meeting with me so I could check out whether he was conservative enough for me. The reason was because I knew that he would be far better than another term of Barack Obama.

The time to question Donald Trump was when there were 16 other choices on the stage a year ago. But Republican voters have spoken. Trump wasn’t MY first choice — I was! But I probably know Hillary Clinton better than any of the 2016 GOP candidates, and believe me, Trump will be a great President compared to Hillary and very well may be a great President compared to any in our nation’s history. Do I wish he were “more like me” on issues such as Israel, sanctity of life, religious liberty, and the institution of marriage? Of course. But that’s not what the voters of my party wanted this time.

Like every other candidate, I pledged my support for the nominee. I gave it in 2008; I gave it in 2012; and I am giving it in 2016. If others pledged that and now refuse, it says more about their pledge than it does the nominee. We all benefited from the infrastructure and apparatus of the party. If we are only going to suit up if we get to quarterback, then we are going to have a lot of people sitting in the cheap seats, watching and being critics.

For those who say “Never Trump” and pretend it’s because you’re too principled and pure to trust someone who has in the past had more than one marriage, supported very liberal abortion laws and labor unions, who was okay with tax increases, and who compromised with Democrats and rarely went to church, then I know you probably hated Ronald Reagan. Yet those of us who supported Reagan never regretted it. The ones who didn’t later pretended they did, and all claimed to be on his side.

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