Wow. I just got off the phone with a Facebook friend who is also a friend in real life who read my little post about being stuck between a rock and a hard place regarding Trump, agreeing with some of the agenda, disagreeing with other parts. He took it as an “Ah ha!” moment that proved I was a Trumpster (he’s a libertarian) because I noted that Trump could possibly do things I would agree with.

We truly live in a time where reason has been thrown out the door.

This is a guy who has sent me anti-Trump articles from the New York Times, the Washington Post and numerous lefty Internet sources like HuffPo, Mediaite and Politico as a “see, I told you so” about reasons not to like The Donald.

I have never accused him of being a progressive because he and these demonstrably progressive sources align – and I asked him how could agreeing with some things I agreed with as a conservative before Trump made me a Trumpster now when his agreement with the Huffington Post didn’t make him a progressive.

His answer – those sources are right about Trump.

Well…OK. What if they are? I might actually agree with them as well – but when I look at their motivations, I have to ask this: are truth and the American Way the only motivations of these contemporary Daily Planets?

I think not.

Where my friend is approaching the intellectual quandary that is Trump from a principled ideological and philosophical perspective, something I truly respect, his allies on the left are not.

Geez, folks. Because I support some things I think Trump might do, that does not mean I’m all in for his populism any more than my friend is becoming a total progressive because he cites the NYT against Trump. I said something the other day that rings even more true today – I don’t have to like the lead actor to recognize good acting, good directing and a good script and like the movie. I’m not a Ben Affleck or a Matt Damon groupie but that doesn’t mean that they haven’t made some movies I like.

While we of the ideological right argue over the prospect of accepting a 60% conservative candidate and have fights over ideological “purity”, the left accepts nothing less than 100% political progressivism (they likely accepted Bill because they knew Hill was a rabid moonbat). Trump proves that they would rather completely destroy a president who is likely to give them 40% of what they desire rather than take a chance they might get 60% that they don’t want.

No elected official is a “be all and end all”. Every one of them, presidents as well, all the way back to George Washington are simply tools in the maintenance of the Republic. Trump is no different. I have no personal affection or distaste for the man, I only care about how he will use the office and what positive take-away will remain after he is old news.

The Office of the President was designed to be a defender of the Constitution, not a bender of it – but a century of of Wilsonian anti-constitutionality has changed that. Now people see the election of a president as a referendum on the very meaning of the Constitution due to the power the Executive wields in the appointment of the judiciary and the unilateral power of executive orders.

I’m constantly evolving…and if truth be told, everyone else is as well. I would wager to say that there are damn few people who still believe the same exact things today as they did when they were 18 years-old. What is evolving are not my principles but the process by which those principles are realized. I don’t want to be who I have to be – I want to be a pure constitutionalist and live according to the tenets of our founding so that politics has no impact on the way I live but as long as there are people who claim our Constitution doesn’t mean what the clear words say, people like me will have to continue to try to find ways to fight back.

As long as that condition remains, we all will have to make choices and compromises to achieve the maximum protection of our principles, whatever they may be – and that means we often will have to become the political animals many of us desire not to become.

Take me now, Jesus.