What if an assortment of Cadets waved a Confederate flag instead of giving the black power salute? Would no punishment be appropriate, or does political correctness override common sense again?
Change the color and the entire argument collapses.

I also reject the notion that if Trump loses, it will be solely because conservatives didn't vote for him.

I dont believe anyone said that.  The Rs will lose even if every conservative votes for Trump.  He HAS to pull in some Independent and some Democrats to win.  Trump has a chance of doing that.  Cruz held no chance in hell of doing that.

Not that maybe Trump didn't run a good campaign, or maybe he wasn't the candidate people thought he was in the primaries, no, it's only the fault of the conservatives who didn't vote for him.

How can you say that?  Trump ran a phenomenal campaign.  He exceeded even the most optimistic supporters from the beginning.  I only started going in his direction once I saw he actually has a chance to win.

That being said, the campaign hasn't officially begun (we still don't have an official Democratic nominee, though we know who it's likely to be) so a lot of what I said was speculative. The point was that Trump supporters seem to already be positioning themselves to blame everyone except themselves for a defeat in November.

I will blame everyone that does not vote for Trump for allowing Hillary to become President.

It's almost as if Trump can do no wrong (and so far through the primaries, it certainly seems that way with a lot of his comments).

Trump has done and said a lot of stupid things.  But he has said a lot of good things too.

I believe he says what he thinks instead of what is "politically correct". And he doesn't apologize for it.  That is how he survived the primary.  How many politicians come back grovelling with an apology when they are challenged on an opinion they gave? How many criticized Obama for his "apology tour"?

He seems unable to get people to work with him, to agree with him, and to join him - his best bet is return to Hooterville and try to con Mr. Douglas into buying a used Farmall.

It is my opinion that in a functioning republic, our rights are not absolute, expressly because those rights are balanced against the rights of others and the common good.

Agree on the first part, we balance our rights against the rights of others.  However, I disagree completely on limiting rights for "the common good".  The "common good" is collectivist bullshit that is used to seize the rights of individuals for the good of the state, and as such is an anathema to the rights of individuals.

I believe the Phillies are the losingest team in MLB history.  Yes, they've won a few World Series, but they were bad for years, and are bad again.  Yes, I am a Phillies fan.

You have the best mascot.  That has to count for something.

This phobia of third world migration is partly why conservatives struggle. Yes, they speak a different language when they show up. Some of my relatives spoke German and French. Two generations in and we barely even know how to say hello in French, or German. The same appears to be happening with the Latinos.

The problem isn't that there are lots of immigrants, the problem is immigrants have a hard time identifying with conservatives and threads like this illustrate why. Not a lot of love for them. Just talk of walls and bitching about them.

The conservatives, whether it be GOP or some other pure group, will have a near impossible time of it because they can't even win over majorities of white and black voters that were born here and have been here for generations. It's too bad conservatives can't get it together because the Latinos, particularly Mexicans could be a much easier sell then many other immigrants. They very much respect the self reliant cowboy ethic, they are great entrepreneurs, they are largely all very Christian and they have a long history with firearms ownership.

Unfortunately, many view them as untrustworthy, lazy parasites and that image couldn't be further from the truth. Clearly they are trust worthy because they make up more and more of work crews everywhere. They show up on time, work all day and don't steal any worse than any other group. Clearly they're not lazy, you see groups of them hanging around in parking lots of Home Depot looking for work. Do you see whites and blacks doing that?? No! They also circulate the neighborhoods leaving business cards for landscape and other manual labor services.

Are they really parasites? They do take advantage of social services whenever they are eligible and they pay taxes. Long term unemployment is not as socially accepted for them as much as it is for whites and blacks. They have community pressure to get a job and get to work. They do have a lot of babies, just like their Bible and their Pope tell them to and these babies can be a drain on social programs. Large families are a cultural norm for Latinos and this only changes with time and education, particularly education of the women.

I personally think the GOP is blowing it big time by not courting the new Latino population, but how can they when their base is so hard on them and all about building walls?

Whether you are intentionally playing the word games of the left, or unintentionally because it has been so ingrained by the left and its complaint media, you are facilitating the misunderstanding of conservatives.

Conservatives welcome immigrants. Conservatives know that they are the lifeblood of the country. But we also know that immigrants need to benefit the United States, and that we are not obligated to become the welfare state for the globe.

What we despise is illegal immigration, a word that you conveniently omit from your analysis. Why is that? 

Illegal immigrants' first act when coming to the US is to break our laws. That doesn't bode well for remaining lawful once they are in country.

Conservatives also don't buy into the WSJ/Chamber of Commerce narrative that illegals are needed because they are doing jobs Americans won't do. Bullshit. If we need temporary agricultural workers, set up a LEGAL guest worker program to handle that.

Does he?  We know he loves Trump.  We here that all the time.  We also know that he wants to "Make America Great Again." 

But since running for president, has he ever, even once, spoken about freedom, liberty, American Exceptionalism, or adherence to the Constitution?  Honestly, I have never ever seen that.

Many, many people thought Obama loved his country - I mean, who would run for president if they didn't?  But we have seen that he doesn't, and is endevouring to make fundamental changes to her.

Anyone who was paying attention knew that Obama hates the idea of America. All you ha to do is read his books and see who he associated himself with. Trump is obviously for the Pursuit of Happiness.