He is the liberal caricature of a conservative

Mark Thiesen writes in the Washington Post that

In the wake of Donald Trump’s abortion gaffes, it should finally be clear that Trump is not a real conservative — he is the liberal caricature of a conservative.

In his now infamous interview with Chris Matthews, Trump not only declared that if abortion became illegal women who have abortions should face “some form of punishment,” but also asserted that “conservatives, Republicans would say, yes they should be punished.”

No, they would not.

This is not something a real pro-life conservative would say; it is something a liberal pretending to be a pro-life conservative would say.

...Trump does not understand this, because he is deeply unfamiliar with what motivates pro-life Americans. The goal of the pro-life movement is to create a “culture of life” that upholds the dignity of every human person from conception to natural death. The objective is not punishment; it is to protect both mother and child.

Since Trump does not actually understand what pro-life conservatives truly believe, he mindlessly echoes the liberal caricature of pro-life conservatives. He mistakenly thinks this is what these conservatives want to hear. They don’t. This is, however, what liberals want to hear. They want a Republican candidate who feeds their false “war on women” narrative. They want to run against the caricature of the pro-life position, because the caricature is ugly. And Trump is giving them precisely what they want.

If that were not bad enough, Trump then went on to compound his problems by reversing himself. In an interview with John Dickerson on “Face the Nation,” Trump said that he would not change the law to protect innocent unborn life, declaring that “the laws are set. . . . At this moment, the laws are set. And I think we have to leave it that way.”

Leave it that way? This is something no pro-life conservative would say. It’s not even something a liberal pretending to be a pro-life conservative would say.

Read more here.