Editor’s Note: Steamboat Institute board member Allen Fuller recently published an article on the real opportunity for conservatives in 2016. An excerpt from his post is below:
In retrospect, we should have seen Trump coming.
According to Gallup, for twelve straight years — since January 2004 — more Americans have said our country is on the wrong track than headed in the right direction. Today only 23 percent of Americans think we are on the right track.
Frustrations have boiled over to the point where now, having sifted through a cast of thousands, the finalists for the most powerful job in the world include a self-avowed socialist and a carnie showman. This is not the stuff of a well-adjusted society.
As words become more bitter and tempers become hotter, if conservatives are to lead, we must choose one of two paths before us, each with very different outcomes.
The path we should be taking, the one that leads us to more freedom and opportunity, is the one founded on America’s timeless principles. Our success as conservatives and as Americans lies in trusting the principles that have historically been the foundation of our government, economy and culture.
Our journey down either path will be long, but effective principles are far better provisions than insults and demagoguery. Our moment of choosing is here. We must choose principles.
Allen Fuller is the director of the Principles That Matter project at the Centennial Institute. Find resources to help connect today’s citizens to timeless principles at www.principlesthatmatter.org.