On the policy level, 2017's been a year of moving the needle - in a very good direction

No, it doesn't give LITD a case of cognitive dissonance to continue to point out the ways in which Donald Trump is objectionable and unlikeable and simultaneously point out that remarkable strides have been taken on myriad fronts in our country this year - strides that surely look a lot like those we'd probably have seen with an actual conservative as president.

You see, as the hackneyed saying goes, conservatives deal in facts, not feelings. There's fact one from the preceding paragraph, and there's fact two. It is entirely possible to acknowledge both.

Andrew Klavan at PJ Media provides a paragraph-sized summary of what's been accomplished:

After a year of Trump, the economy is in high gear, stocks are up, unemployment is down, energy production is up, business expansion is up and so on; ISIS — which took more than 23,000 square miles of territory after Obama left Iraq and refused to intervene in Syria — is now in control of a Port-o-San and a book of matches; 19 constitutionalist judges have been appointed and 40 more nominated; the biggest regulatory rollback in American history has been launched (boring but yugely important); the rule of law has been re-established at the border; we're out of the absurd and costly Paris Accord; net neutrality, the most cleverly named government power grab ever, is gone; our foreign policy is righted and revitalized; and a mainstream news media that had become little more than the information arm of the Democratic Party is in self-destructive disarray. If the tax bill passes before Christmas, it will cap an unbelievable string of conservative successes.

How can a conservative not be delighted with that?

Now, with regard to fact number one - Trump's personal repulsiveness and outsized ego - it has led to far more White House staff chaos than we should have see. The brief stint of Anthony Scaramucci encapsulates that. Byron York at The Washington Examiner says that for big strides to continue in 2018, attention to personnel is going to be paramount. Steady hands and mature characters are going to have to increase their influence.

Of course, there were those who were shills for DJT from the outset, and we've named them here many times - to enumerate Hannity, Ingraham serves as sufficient shorthand - and then there were those who had strong misgivings about him, and tried, through their activity as pundits to persuade the voting public to choose another course as long as that was possible, but then, once he was elected, started to opine, "You know, what? I'm actually starting to like the guy, rough edges and all." Think Schlichter and Bookworm. To reiterate the LITD position on those folks, they've made it hard to ever respect and admire them the way we had previously.

Then there is the I-hate-Trump-so-much-I'll-change-positions-on-policy-matters-if-I-have-to-in-order-to-adhere-to-that-one-constant camp, most notably exemplified by Jennifer Rubin.

Of course, the entire left side of the spectrum is characterized by this kind of blind hatred, but it doesn't require any change of policy position on their part. That's because they have conflated Trumpism with conservatism, and since much of what's been achieved is laudable by conservative standards, it gives them double the bang for their buck.

And, as LITD has said all along, that's the danger of having DJT's signature on 2017's fine track record. As the midterm cycle gets underway, leftists are going to run on a theme of, "Low taxes, deregulation, defeat of jihadist groups, restoration of the alliance with Israel, and ramping up of fossil-fuel energy production are the policies of loudmouth buffoons."

Just sayin'.

This is why actual conservatives are going to have to have their argumentation chops in A-game order. The yee-haw contingent is no better able to articulate the basic principles involved than its idol.

You see, that contingent is content to trample the Left and move on to further policy victories without so much as a glance over their shoulder.

The problem with that is that, as polls in recent years, even preceding the Trump phenomenon, have shown, the country as a whole is not as conservative as we'd assumed.

That means some power of persuasion is going to have to be applied in our encounters with those with whom we still have social - and family - ties. Not everyone is so ate up as to be hopeless. I myself have had people tell me that I had provoked them to consider facts and perspectives that had not previously shown up on their radar screens.

For such engagement, the sharpest of knife edges, capable of parsing the most intricate demarcations between ways of looking at various matters, is going to be needed. We must invite our fellow citizens to discern, and discernment is at a premium like never before.

It's a lot more work than ad hominem attacks and sound-bite slogans, but it can swell our ranks, while mud-slinging can't.

In the meantime, we undeniably have a track record making a real difference in daily life on the ground to help us out.