populism. I think there is still a traditional American right of center conservative repub faction lurking out there, which values free markets, free trade, the post WWII global order which helped bring about the "American Century" (and make the US the world's dominant power economically, militarily, and even culturally in many respects), along with the usual socially conservative stances. They also value the checks and balances within our govt.

And then there's the Trumpie populists, who at the snap of Trump's fingers will flip on a dime and favor any stance, including those they used to rail against when favored by dems. Tommy is in this category - whoever he feels is the leader of the repub party tells him what to think and what to favor, and he blindly follows. There are a lot of Trumpie populists like that, mainly just into party tribalism, although there are true committed alt-right populists as well.

Anyway, Tommy isn't defending conservative values, he just defends whatever he thinks current repub leadership wants him to defend. And populism always traffics in bullshit soundbites. Unfortunately, people more like that seem to control repub nominating processes in most of the country, which is completely marginalizing those lurking non-populist, traditionally conservative repubs.
[Post edited by hoolstoptheheels at 07/11/2018 12:28PM]