In the July 29 edition of The Bulletin, David Brooks takes President Trump to task as part of his paean to Arizona Republican Sen. Jeff Flake and his new book, “Conscience of a Conservative.”

In his praise for Flake and the book, Brooks laments that the “Trump … administration dropped a nuclear bomb on the basic standards of decency in public life.” Other comments include “the mind boggling monstrosity of what’s happening” and “Trump takes decay to a new level.” If those calumnies are not a sufficient indication of his disdain for the president, Brooks adds: “The Trump administration is a moral cancer eating away at conservatism in the Republican Party and what it means to be a public servant.”

A Republican columnist for the New York Times, Brooks long ago abandoned any pretense of being a conservative. Clearly, there are conservatives who have never accepted Trump: George Will and Bill Kristol among the most notable.

The diversity of opinion in the Republican Party means that some ideological purists will have difficulty with a populist like Trump who at one time was a Democrat and actively supported John Kerry and Hillary Clinton. To many conservatives, those transgressions are unforgivable.

More important to Trump supporters, who span the ideological spectrum from Rust Belt Democrats to the tea party, is the fact that President Trump has tapped into a deep concern about the direction the country has taken, particularly during the Obama presidency.

He has identified the issues that upset those who feel the country has moved too far from the Judeo-Christian values on which the country was founded.

It is not only conservatives who share this concern, but also many who don’t identify as Republicans.

What concerns these Americans is the emphasis on multiculturalism and moral relativism, the idea that all cultures are equal and no one’s beliefs and value system are superior to another’s.

Obama made this point in his first speech to an overseas audience, when he said on his famous “apology tour” that no nation is more exceptional than another, and proceeded to apologize for the sins of America.

After eight disastrous years of Obama and his reckless policies of weakening the military, fomenting racial strife and class warfare, pandering to the LGBTQ community, encouraging illegal immigration, undermining our allies, negotiating deals with hostile foreign governments, refusing to identify the scourge of radical Islam, engaging in wasteful social programs and profligate spending, and presiding over the most anemic recovery since World War II, many Americans wanted a change of course and a leader who would speak candidly about their fears and frustrations.

In a contest between a thoroughly corrupt and uninspiring Democrat nominee who thought she was entitled to the presidency and an “out-of-the-box” candidate who did not fit a conventional political mold and broke a lot of eggs on his way to the Republican nomination, the voters selected the one who addressed their concerns and promised a different approach to governance.

In doing so, they put into office someone who upset not only progressives and leftists and their friends in the mainstream media who thought the election was Hillary’s for the taking, but also many establishment Republicans and “never Trumpers.” Both sides were threatened by his promise to “drain the swamp” and are actively resisting it, aided and abetted by the left-wing media and those in government who oppose his vision.

Finally, we have a president who is not afraid to tell his supporters and detractors what he thinks and does not hesitate to fight back against his enemies in the establishment, on the left and the right. There are many, like Brooks, who will never accept Trump nor give him credit for his positive actions.

Their attitudes do nothing to diminish the president in the eyes of those who yearn for a return to traditional American values.

— Paul deWitt lives in Bend.

The diversity of opinion in the Republican Party means that some ideological purists will have difficulty with a populist like Trump who at one time was a Democrat and actively supported John Kerry and Hillary Clinton. To many conservatives, those transgressions 
are unforgivable.