Is Trump the real conservative? The bench, we were told, was deep. Cruz, Rubio, Kasich, Jeb along with Biff, Buffy, Jugghead, Flounder… And then came Donald Trump. But while the bench might have been deep with politics, how deep were their conservative bonafides? Senator Rubio’s shtick wore thin quickly and he could not atone for his dalliances with amnesty. Governor Kasich was unconvincing except as a “good government” proponent and that ain’t conservative. Senator Cruz was conservative, no doubt, but he ticked everyone off. How can you govern if you can’t get along with others? Jeb never had a chance; his father was no conservative and his brother was too timid to be. The rest were flawed and weak.

And what of Trump’s conservatism? Better than you might think.

There is nothing conservative about open borders and the embrace of illegal interlopers. Trump said emphatically, he’d close the borders and send those here illegally back to their home countries. While the rest of the bench prevaricated, Trump doubled-down on sovereignty.

Moreover, there is nothing conservative about giving up any advantage when negotiating trade or treaties. While the rest of the bench sat dumbfounded, Trump looked to our strategic interest and asked why we should give up the farm. The Left cried xenophobia and protectionism, but Trump struck a nerve and the political class had no answer. The Iran deal was a perfect foil to prove Trump’s point, as is the proposed Trans-Pacific Trade Agreement. People see these deals as another rapid erosion of our sovereignty, and rightly so. Sovereignty facilitates conservatism; without the first, the second cannot stand. Trump rightly championed sovereignty again and rejected the globalist Left. And he was prescient: consider Brexit.

And no single candidate was more conservative than Trump on the military (rebuild it), veterans (we owe them), or foreign affairs (America first). He spoke as frankly about ISIS, Iran, China and Russia as any other candidate. His message was clear and conservative: we will be strong; we will support our allies; we will punish those who attack us; we will support Israel. And he said we will do this with the expectation that, in return, our allies will pay for their share of the burden and that our enemies, once defeated, will repay us for our sacrifice.

On taxes, his proposals were no less conservative nor more incoherent than that of any candidate. He punted on entitlements. Other than Christie, so did everyone else.

He didn’t pander to social conservatives or Buckley conservatives. He was sometimes petty and vindictive. His gracelessness and lack of humility remain his greatest weakness with the intellectual conservative movement. They don’t love a braggart and love nothing more than to see the arrogant get their comeuppance. Trump refuses to heal and they hate him for it.

But despite all this, Trump matched — trumped? — the conservative field because he was, in the end, the most conservative when it counted.

Trump doesn’t act like a conservative or defer to the George Wills of the world: he dismisses them. When applying the Buckley Rule to Trump, the problem was never his positions, but his electability. The pundits thought the electorate would reject him. They were wrong.

Sometimes you need a guy who isn’t afraid to ignore the pundits and the status quo. The status quo put us in the position we are in. The pundits fidget and futz and propose, essentially, more of the same.

Not this time.