Conservatives Gaining Power

“Most people can bear adversity. But if you wish to know what a man really is, give him power. That is the supreme test.”  - Robert Ingersoll, essay on Lincoln.  

Conservatives are about to face just that sort of test. After eight years of suffering through Obama’s presidency and opposing his and his administration’s actions and policies, they will have a  Republican congress and a pugnacious Republican president who claims to side with them (and who really may do so, based on people he has nominated for executive-level jobs).  It will be interesting to see how they handle things. 

Besides opposing Obama on many particular issues, many conservatives claimed to oppose him in general and  on principle  - the principles of limited government  and legal and constitutional constraints on the powers and actions of presidents.  The question for them now is whether they really meant what they said and will remember and act on those principles with their man in the White House. (Libertarians favor these principles as well, but we aren’t going to have any power and so won’t face any such tests.)   I am afraid most of them will temporize and dissemble and find excuses to accept policies and tactics coming from Trump that they would have fought coming from a Democrat. There are already examples of this in regard to international trade.  We may see evidence, as in the administrations of both Bushes, that too many Republicans and conservatives are less opposed to a too powerful government  as such than opposed to a too powerful government only when  controlled by someone besides them.  Whether my guess is right or wrong, it will be a telling experiment.