The Republican Party is in flames and I don’t know if anything is salvageable. We aren’t seeing a slight blip in the history of the party, but a transformation. No, what we are seeing the Europeanization of the American Right. Just like in Europe, there are mainstream conservative parties and far-right parties. For example, in Germany, there is the mainstream conservative party, the Christian Democrats, and the far-right party, Alternative for Germany. The changes taking place in the Republican party mean that it is slowly becoming a far-right/nationalist party. That means that conservatives, moderates and libertarians are people will become more and more out of sync. Which means that mainstream conservatives are on the outs. We are in exile.

I don’t think many Never-Trump conservatives (at least the ones who are left) have really come to terms on this. What’s happening in the GOP is not temporary. The primary voters in 2016 had 16 other candidates to choose from, and they chose the one who was the most bigoted, the least democratic and the most nationalistic. The party leaders might have wanted more diversity, such as what was proposed in the GOP autopsy after the 2012 election, but the base wasn’t interested. The reason Trump went from being a joke to becoming president is because this is really what the people wanted. He knew he could win the electorate by feeding them racial resentment and fear. They are not going to be mollified by having someone like Nikki Haley as the next GOP presidential nominee.