Thought I might go on a bit of a rant here about the state of my political leanings and the GOP at large. I've always considered myself a moderate Republican and somewhat part of the GOP "Establishment". I supported and campaigned for Rubio during the primaries and have always valued electability in competitive primaries.
For most of his run, I was not a fan of Trump. I was convinced that if he was the nominee he would loose in a landslide. However, in the general election, I "held my nose" and voted for Trump, knowing that I really didn't want Hillary to be president and that there were some Trump policy positions that I actually liked. I was pleasantly surprised in November to see Trump win and GOP retain the House and Senate.
As 2017 has professed, my thinking has changed somewhat. At the beginning of the year I was one of those voters who trusted GOP Congressional leaders more than Trump based on their policy track records, and the fact that Trump seemed distracted by unnecessary culture/social wars.
However, after the Obamacare failure in the Senate and Trump's performance over the summer in dealing with the media and Democrats has really changed my thinking. While I still consider myself a moderate Republican, I trust Trump a lot more than the GOP Congress at this point. That's not to say Trump doesn't still do unproductive things that irritate me, rather it seems like he is the only GOP leader committed to getting some things done and fighting against Dems/the media. For example, although I thought his Charlottesville statements could've been worded better, I agreed with him for the most part. Meanwhile GOP congressional leaders appeared to want gratification from a Media organization that only likes them when they're denouncing fellow Republicans.
Moreover, I've begun to notice just how deranged some Democrats are in trying to reverse the 2016 election and delegitimize any Trump supporter. I live in D.C. and have seen several new posters over the past week that depict Trump and his supporters as nazis.
So in sum, my ideological leaning haven't changed much. But now that I understand just how intense future political battles will be and how poorly the GOP Congress has performed so far, I'm much closer to Trump in attitude and leadership. I understand that he's far from perfect, but I'm still with him now and plan on doing the same in 2020.
-rant over-