What’s in a name, a future president? Well, Hillary Clinton certainly hopes so. Meanwhile, Bush scion Jeb is sidelined, and the whole clan apparently is licking its wounds. Now, the electorate is sensibly beginning to coalesce behind presumptive GOP nominee Donald Trump, the Republican Party elites like Paul Ryan not so much. Specifically, also the grudge-holding political dynasty, the Bush Family. Yet, even if that endorsement was on offer (it’s not), it is doubtful that Mr. Trump would want that elitist nod. And given the country’s hunger for a political outsider, why should he want the stain of that affiliation? Recall that the last Republican president was named Bush — and his lack of popularity propelled then unknown quantity Mr. Obama into office.

To this end, a no doubt mouthpiece for the Family, in the form of one of George W. Bush’s former chief speechwriters, recently wrote:

“Now loyalty to party is causing many to abandon their ideals. Conservatism is not misogyny. Conservatism is not nativism and protectionism. Conservatism is not religious bigotry and conspiracy theories. Conservatism is not anti-intellectual and anti-science. For the sake of partisanship — for a mess of pottage — some conservatives are surrendering their identity.”

As is typical of The Washington Post, even its “conservative” writers get everything backwards, upside down and inside out (if that is possible). After all, what is the basis of the populist movement that is the Trump phenomenon? Is it Pavlovian style fealty to a familiar last name of one family member or another (read: Clinton’s wife; Bush’s brother and/or son) who has resided in the White House before? (Wasn’t the American Revolution fought, in part, against such nepotism, royal or otherwise?) On both sides, these political elites very much want for rank-and-file voters to think so — to mindlessly pull the lever their way and then get back to their little lives finding work or paying taxes.

If the 2016 presidential contest has demonstrated anything, it’s that neither the voters nor the likely successful candidate is likely to act in conventional ways. For insight into this anomaly, let’s look to the person actual conservatives hope Mr. Trump will emulate: Ronald Reagan. Of his own political evolution, he said: “I didn’t leave the Democratic Party, the Democratic Party left me.” Well, precisely. Weak-kneed Republicans have spent the disastrous Obama years alternatively cowering in a corner, afraid to be smeared as racists — or going to lunch. Yet, in the last two election cycles, Mr. Obama and fellow Democrats appropriately received electoral shellackings. Since then nothing has changed despite the liberals’ loss of both legislative houses. Even under fresh-faced House Speaker Paul “clean slate” Ryan, it’s been more business as usual. Specifically, when he rubber stamped $2 trillion more in deficit spending, he showed the American people that Republicans can engage in lip service (to ideals like limited government) as readily as progressives while simultaneously acting indistinguishable from them.

Speaking of which, let us go back further to look at the record of George W. Bush. For starters (though likely well intentioned), he also expanded government by creating a whole new bureaucratic, cabinet-level department with the Office of Homeland Security. By the numbers, when Mr. Bush’s term started January 20, 2001, the debt left by Bill Clinton was $5.73 trillion. By the end of the Republican’s two terms the debt had almost doubled to $10.63 trillion. How was the money spent? There was the greatest expansion in Medicare in decades. Likewise was his No Child Left Behind program that grew the (worthless) Department of Education. Then there was Bush’s $700 billion dollar bailout of financial institutions. Add to the tab wars on two fronts in Iraq and Afghanistan (including progressive Wilsonian nation-building). Therefore, it is only a question of the extremity of the degree. But, that’s a huge technicality. Indeed, Richard Nixon looks like a choir boy when compared to Mr. Obama’s lawless, ultra-constitutional wrongdoing. Specifically, this current administration’s constant and inept warring, big government expansion (read: Obamacare), stimulus spending and the GM bailout, and the exploding debt (read: Mr. Obama’s $9 trillion and counting) makes anything we’ve had previously look like a cakewalk. Is it any wonder America wants to get off the nauseating Obama-Clinton-Bush merry-go-round?

As in nature, organisms instinctively find a way to survive. Even if they don’t thrive, they adapt to changing conditions and new exigencies. Mr. Trump is that unexpected solution. Therefore, he scares the heebie–jeebies out of all entrenched establishment power-brokers. Well, so sad, too bad! Do the voters care about Mr. Trump’s bluster or unfiltered speech — or are they sick to death of smarmy politicians bold-faced lies, and anti-First Amendment political correctness? Further, do they care that the coddled ruling class call Trump supporters bigots, misogynists or just plain ignorant? The only stupid vote here is for more of the same: crooked, lying Hillary who promises a dystopian Obama third term.

The present political reality is clear and unequivocal. After a robust contest, Republican voters have overwhelmingly chosen Donald Trump. Therefore, despite private reservations, GOP politicians have a public duty to the country to support the people’s will in this matter. Indeed, this never-Trump crowd shows colossal selfishness and arrogance. Even worse, and most tellingly, they demonstrate de facto support for another corrupt insider: Hillary. That means these well heeled hypocrites are enablers who want to game a system they can no longer control. And so what if the cost is the very soul of the country itself? For that’s what’s on the line here. That’s also why Mr. Trump’s status as an unpredictable, plain-speaking outsider is so essential.

So what if he’s not a card-caring conservative? He’s also not a standard do-nothing (or do the wrong thing) professional politician either. In the final analysis, if he can drag America back to its Reaganesque roots — a Herculean task — he will have the appreciation of a restored nation. So, let the insulated beltway creatures of Washington whine. From that other shining city on a hill, a smiling down Gipper will no doubt approve.

David L. Hunter is on Twitter and blogs at davidlhunter.blogspot.com. He is published in The Washington Post, The Washington Times, Patriot Post, FrontPage Mag, and extensively in Canada Free Press and American Thinker.