I rejected Trump early, which is why I'm voting Libertarian, but I don't think your ideas are the answer. You say conservatives should define themselves as conservatives, but then you offer moderate positions that "conservatives" ought to take. I suppose that makes sense because "conservative" really means an adherence to the status quo.

The problem with that is that the country has been pulled so far to the left in the last 60 years that "conservative" now means the values of the Democratic Party in the Kennedy era. That's a collectivist - everybody-walk-in-lockstep-with-the-government value system that Goldwater tried to show was a major mistake.

If that's where the GOP should be now, then I won't be voting GOP ever again ... at least not on the national level. The America I want to live in would accept an individual's right to live their own life, not go along with the herd. That's not what you're describing. Reject my values & I reject yours. Bye-bye GOP.