The poor social conservatives. They’ve gone from being useful idiots for Nixon, to useful idiots for Reagan, to useful idiots for the neocons, to useful idiots for Trump. They’re kind of like a woman that gets taken advantage of by one abusive husband or boyfriend after another. “We’ll get those Supreme Court Justices this time, we really will!”
By Jeremy Peters
New York Times
Activists and leaders in the social conservative movement, after spending most of the past year opposing and condemning Donald J. Trump, are now moving to embrace his candidacy and are joining the growing number of mainstream Republicans who appear ready to coalesce around the party’s presumptive nominee.
Though their support for Mr. Trump is often qualified, this change of heart is one of the more remarkable turns in an erratic and precedent-defying Republican campaign. It reflects the sense among many Republicans that, flawed as they may see him, the thrice-married billionaire is preferable to the alternative.
“Oh, my, it’s difficult,” said Penny Nance, the president of Concerned Women for America, a group that has openly campaigned against Mr. Trump. “He’s not my first choice. He’s not my second choice,” she added. “But any concerns I have about him pale in contrast to Hillary Clinton.”
