This is a bit dated, but it sums up perfectly what I have been trying to say for two years when it comes to NeverTrumpers. I will copy and paste those parts I think are most salient

https://www.redstate.com/diary/daven...rs-right-dont/


Trump is the momentary manifestation of a fight that has been brewing well before Trump between the base and the establishment. It is the establishment that panders to the base with words before an election, then fails to deliver once elected.


People like David French at National Review became the poster child of the “muh principles” crowd although he and his ilk were hard-pressed to find anyone to fight for these principles, let alone implement them.

Those who accuse others of abandoning principles (the NeverTrumper versus everyone else) are the ones without the principles. That is, whereas we stand for principles upon which this country was founded and are willing to fight for them, the principles of the elite was to gain and maintain power. So now our alleged intellectual betters align themselves with the Left and shout that anyone who disagrees with them is motivated by racism or xenophobia. Suddenly, those who support Trump the President, not Trump the man, are a danger to the republic. In reality, we are a danger to the elites and they don’t like it one bit.

The truth is that base Republicans and conservatives support most of the things the establishment claims to support, but we refuse to roll over for the Left.

This is not even about Donald Trump. It is who will stand up and fight for the base. This is not a racial (i.e., white thing) or a religious thing (i.e., Christian). It means being blind to color, sex or religion. It means having the ability to pursue happiness without the heavy hand of the state in your way. The base does not bar or ban legal entry to the American Dream, but does demand that you accept responsibility for successes or failures, and believing the state has no business telling you how to act, what to think or say, or with whom to associate. It also means that you earn your success in the American Dream without favoritism. Most of all, it means not groveling at the feet of the nannies and totalitarians of thought on the Left.

Decades of the abandonment of these principles by the so-called principled conservative establishment elite caused the recent revolt that spurred an unlikely person- Donald Trump- not only to the Republican nomination, but also into the White House. Instead, the NeverTrump faction is virtually indistinguishable from The Resistance now. The failed Weekly Standard, a one-time conservative mainstay, has morphed into The Bulwark, a publication touting itself as “conservatism conserved” being funded by a Leftist billionaire. That alone sums up the “principles” of the NeverTrump crowd.


This nails it. This has never been about Trump. It is amazing when I hear NeverTrumpers make the arguments of The Resistance in saying that Trump supporters bought into a "cult of personality". It is the same type of dismissiveness that led to Trump being elected. The bottom line is the base tired of being taken for granted. It was born out of years of frustration over a failure to implement campaign promises and ceding ground to the left. Trump is a manifestation of that frustration.