My objections to Trump and Trumpism lie far less in the man and far more in how unrecognizable the conservative movement has become under his leadership.

Those of us who consider ourselves conservatives, but have stood athwart Donald Trump’s leadership and continued dominance of the GOP, are often assailed with accusations of not looking past our objections to his style to see the broader picture of his accomplishments. The #MAGA crowd sneers that we are weak, we lack backbone and are unwilling to fight in the manner required to win.

They say our objections ultimately derive from a squishy sensibility unable to stomach Trump’s coarse nature. They dismiss us as deranged in our estimations of Trump’s accomplishments because we simply can’t stand him.

This is indeed a comforting story to believe for those who wish to dismiss perspectives such as mine without any consideration. Inconvenient to the narrative, of course, is that it is not actually the case.

I oppose Trumpism because it compounded a pernicious, but typically small, aspect of the conservative sensibility. It brought to the forefront an anti-intellectual and cynical sense of paranoia that views every shadow as an imminent threat and the end of the republic. It dialed in on this sense of moral panic to such an extent that many conservatives have come to set aside crucial aspects of what it traditionally meant to be conservative.

The conservatism I believe in, the conservatism I learned about from the speeches of Ronald Reagan as a young and optimistic man, offered a hopeful vision. I embraced conservatism because it matched my view of America as a city on a hill. It was inclusive and provided as big a tent as possible to all who desired to restore and expand the founding vision.

That is not what conservatism is today, at least not the conservatism that’s visible in the Republican Party. Today, conservatism comes off as fearful, haughty, back-biting and angry. Its caretakers have allowed it to become perceived as the purview of a narrow subset of hostile populists who cannibalize even the most compatible of allies for going against whatever winds blow their fears on a given day.

As opposed to an astute philosophical project offering real solutions in applying the founding vision to a modern world, the present course is devolving conservatism into an anti-intellectual mob that prides itself in aloofness to facts and grander moral principles.

This new brand of political thought — now more a form of populist nationalism than anything akin to American conservatism — no longer cares for proper means or the value of character. Its supporters will do anything and support anyone in a mad dash for a maniacally desired end, one they consistently define as supporting whatever the other side opposes and opposing whatever the other side supports.

The problem a non-Trump conservative like me has with Donald Trump has less to do with anything specifically about the man himself and far more to do with how unrecognizable the conservative movement and the political party that’s supposed to reflect its traditional ideals and values have become.

The reason I’ve spoken out against Trump from the beginning, and continue to oppose his dominance of the conservative movement and the Republican Party, has nothing to do with any of the projections so many try to foist upon me to justify dismissing me. Instead, the reason is very simple and straightforward: I am still conservative. Trump and his enablers have departed altogether from anything it meant to be conservative in America.

Far from a juvenile notion of “Orange Man Bad” or a hysterical sense of “Trump Derangement Syndrome.” My opposition to Trump and Trumpism derives from my philosophical conviction that conservatism does not belong in the shallows of narrow populism, angry nationalism, or unhinged anti-liberalism … it was meant to swim and thrive in far deeper waters.

Justin Stapley is a student at Utah Valley University studying political theory and constitutionalism. He works part time as a research assistant at UVU’s Center for Constitutional Studies.

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