How should a conservative regard the team-player question going into 2018?

Roger L. Simon's latest piece at PJ Media is entitled "Why the Remaining NeverTrumpers Should Apologize Now." The actual argument he puts forth is a little less confrontational than the click-bait title would indicate. He correctly points out that actual conservatives (as opposed to Trump-base types) are, as they should be, delighted with the solid list of policy-level victories achieved this year. He may or may not be right about the further point he makes: that there never was a great deal of daylight between Trumpist aims and those of conservatives. A lot of Trumpism comes down to vague bromides about trade and immigration that do poorly when fleshed out as actual policy position.

And his right-between-the-eyes characterization of how the protracted struggle between the two sides in the American divide is going to get ratcheted up to a level of ugliness in the coming election cycle that we surely have not yet seen strikes me as spot on:

 . . . a war is coming -- you can almost feel it in the air.  We should all pray that it will be non-violent and work hard to keep it that way.  But we should also have our ideological troops ready and prepared for that imminent battle for the hearts and minds.  It's going to be pivotal.

He then implores us - those conservatives who still find Trump too objectionable to actually cheer for - to join ranks without reservation:

NeverTrumpers, please join.  Past disagreements will be instantly forgotten and your skills immediately welcomed. I think you can depend on that.

Earlier in his piece, he takes note of some new openness on the part of some in our camp - but then he has to throw in that "could do more" business:

Rich Lowry of  National Review deserves special praise for his graciousness in this regard. Guy Benson -- on the Ingraham Angle Thursday night -- seemed ready to lend a hand, if a little tentatively. Ross Douthat has walked back a bit, as has Jonah Goldberg.  They could do more.  They are men of great credit and it wouldn't hurt their reputations. (Well, Douthat might endanger his job.)

With regard to Jonah Goldberg, Simon might want to read his latest at NRO. The gist is that the pretty-much-assured economic boost we'll see from the tax-reform bill may not be enough to surmount the Republicans' dismal prospects for next November. Two reasons for that: the ever-less-mainstream media that still controls the narrative for much of the public, and, of course, the public's pretty-well-set-in-concrete dislike of Donald Trump:

Trump is at 41 percent approval in the WSJ/NBC poll, which is a few ticks above the RealClearPolitics average, which has him hovering around 38 percent. But the theme is clear across polls and recent elections. The suburban, college-educated cadres that make up much of the reliable GOP base as well as the Republican-leaners who often provide the margin of victory, particularly in midterms, are simply fed up with Trump’s drama. Those voters either didn’t turn out or voted Democrat in elections in Virginia, Alabama, and elsewhere, giving Democrats significant and symbolic victories.

[snip]

The president’s party almost always suffers in midterm elections. Maybe we’ll get a roaring economy and a newfound confidence in the GOP, but, barring a war, I’ll be shocked if the GOP is not shellacked in 2018 if the most salient social issue out there remains Donald Trump.

Simon doesn't come right out and say so, but he's asking "NeverTrumpers" (his term, not mine. We have long since retired it, given that the guy's been president since January 20) to make the final leap: to champion him as the standard-bearer of our values and principles.

I know I can't do it, and I'm quite sure I'm not alone. For one thing, per Goldberg, it looks like political suicide. More importantly for me, however, is the point I hammer home relentlessly: the cultural component of all this remains far more daunting than the public-policy front, and Donald Trump is a poster boy for our cultural sickness (the disgusting utterances to the contrary by Robert Jeffers, Jerry Falwell, Jr. and, just today at The American Thinker, Robert Oscar Lopez notwithstanding).

A small example that speaks volumes: our enemies continue to have a field day on Facebook posting the nude photos of Melania Trump that appeared in Maxim years ago. What is an effective refutation? That it was years ago? That she now reads to children in hospitals, or graciously serves tea to visiting First Ladies from other countries? Sorry, the plain fact is that no previous First Lady had anything remotely approaching this in her past.

For those who think it's somehow unfair to drag her into this, there are the quotes - yes, the ones I gathered and listed recently - from DJT himself showing his true attitude toward women and sexuality.

A couple more examples from the thousands available for citing: He called the towering intellectual Charles Krauthammer a "dummy." He strongly insinuated that Ted Cruz's father was implicated in the JFK assassination. He's on record as seeing merit in the universal-health-care idea. He spoke admiringly of the pedophile Jeff Epstein.

And I will not be cowed by Kurt Schlichter types who say this stance is much too prissy to be of any use in the war that we all - Schlichter, Simon, as well as all of us who still point out that Trump is no conservative - agree has been thrust upon us. If we do not define victory in that war as restoring a general societal atmosphere that pleases God, then count me out. 

Simon is asking too much of us.

Defending the ideas and principles we know to be right and true - with fierceness and a clarity that will make the enemy wither? Reporting for duty.

Doing what I can to help truly conservative candidates win next November? Where do I sign?

Saying Donald Trump is great? Not taking that assignment.