Like many who read National Review’s symposium against Donald Trump, I was struck by the opening to L. Brent Bozell’s piece: “Longtime conservative leader Richard Viguerie has a simple test for credentialing a conservative: Does he walk with us?” I would turn the question around and pose it to Trump’s supporters: When did he ever walk with you?

In the past quarter-century, our nation has confronted the petty corruption of the Clinton clan, the shock of 9/11, the long, grinding wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and a progressive Obama administration hell-bent on turning the federal government against its citizens. All the while, our aristocratic elite has disregarded the will of the people to rule by regulatory fiat and refused to enforce laws it doesn’t like — enabling, for example, an immigrant flood that enriched their lives while depressing wages, limiting opportunities for blue-collar Americans, and straining social services.

Through all of those trials, I’ve never once had reason to think, “Thank God Donald Trump stands with us,” because he didn’t. If he stood anywhere at all, more often than not he stood against us.

I’m no Trump-hater. In fact, I’ve been a fan for a long time. I loved The Apprentice, I was immensely amused by his star turn in the WWE, and I appreciated his iconoclastic pop-culture presence. There’s no question that he’s a gifted and relentless — if also often vulgar and rude — communicator, and I believe he’s a patriot. If he truly has come around on life, the Second Amendment, health care, immigration, and every other issue about which he once disagreed with not just movement conservatives but also his new blue-collar base, then I welcome his change of heart.

NR FEATURE: Against Trump

But Trump’s not the best person to lead this nation, and he’s not the best person to speak for a movement that desperately needs a clear and strong voice in American politics and culture.

#share#Democrats draw their strength from our society’s economic bookends —highly educated progressives and the vast (and growing) numbers of poor Americans. Republicans ostensibly appeal to America’s middle class, a reality they’ve too often taken for granted when it comes to the business of governing. Trump’s supporters come disproportionately from a working class all too neglected by both parties.

When in the past did Trump ever walk with conservatives, or even with the blue-collar base his populist rhetoric has won him?

No one denies that there are a host of specific government actions and failures that make this working-class base rightfully angry — from appeasing enemies abroad, to violating constitutional rights here at home, to allowing a degree of legal and illegal immigration that impairs their ability to make a living. That the GOP establishment sold them a bill of goods — vote for us to stop IRS targeting, to stop Obamacare, to secure our borders, to protect America — on which Republicans barely seemed interested in delivering the minute they won election is undoubtedly galling as well. Obama’s Left has an unshakeable conviction that that the GOP manifestly lacks, and Trump’s supporters are justifiably fed up with the spinelessness of the politicians who promised to fight for them.

#related#But is Trump the man who can solve the problem? Does he have the strength of conviction to directly confront a privileged Washington class that has proven so very good at coopting even the most idealistic of politicians? Ironically, it’s this same elite — the one Trump has challenged with such political success — that now increasingly believes he isn’t for real. In growing numbers, they’re concluding that he would preside over business as usual in D.C., and declaring war on the man they perceive as a much greater threat — Ted Cruz.

But when in the past did Trump ever walk with conservatives, or even with the blue-collar base his populist rhetoric has won him? Our challenges are too great — and our trust is too precious — to be placed in the hands of a man who’s never before stood in the right corner. We can and must do better than that.

— David French is an attorney and a staff writer at National Review.