“Nothing matters” has become the rallying cry of 2016. This phrase is a flip reflection of resignation afflicting conservative stalwarts. They concede that no amount of evidence against him will dissuade Trump supporters from rallying to his side. Surely, though, in the debate over whether a righteous, upstanding, wartime president to whom America owes a debt of gratitude will be discredited by his polar opposite, character and facts do matter a great deal. The truth is that vastly more conservatives and Republicans are turned off by Trump than are attracted to his bombast and evangelism for victimhood. That’s not visible in the polls because, unlike the Democrats, the GOP entered 2016 with a large slate of talented candidates, all of whom were qualified for the presidency. It is telling that Trump’s instincts are almost always to make the liberal’s case when he finds himself boxed in by his Republican opponents. From social security reform to ISIS, the celebrity candidate frequently lets the veil slip. If you believe the Republican Party is no longer a conservative party, that’s not a liability. If, however, you survey the political landscape and review the makeup of the U.S. Senate, the House, the governors, and majority GOP-led state legislatures, it is hard to conclude honestly the Republican Party is not a conservative party. This should give Republicans some hope that the Trump ascendancy remains a feature of the crowded field of 2016 candidates and not of a rejection of the party’s decades-old guiding beliefs. At least, not yet.

From values and temperament to policy positions, the celebrity candidate has shown that he can buck any of the belief structures that animate most self-described conservatives and be rewarded for it by his committed supporters and apologists. But just because Trump is immune to criticism does not mean that those denunciations should end. If the exercise is aimed at converting his blinkered backers, its futility would quickly prove exhausting. That is not why we speak in favor of esteemed values and codes of conduct that are under threat. We defend principles under siege because they are worth defending. Those who would surrender their morality and philosophy in exchange for the hollow prospect of some undefined sort of victory do not care much for what they will have won. If there was once a conservative revolt against the GOP, which held that the party had given up on its convictions in service to illusory notions of bipartisanship, electoral victories, and perpetual influence inside the Beltway, that revolution is over. It was hijacked by something antithetical to conservatism; something vastly more popular than that philosophy of small government and self-reliance ever will be. Even if it is a losing proposition, true conservatives will always find themselves standing athwart history yelling “stop.” You’ll find those less inclined toward integrity hopping aboard the bandwagon.