The basic problem is that the producers want a conservative who credibly represents the views of Republican news consumers. But they also want one who is not “a denier of the 2020 election results” or “seen as flirting too heavily with fringe conspiracy theories or the MAGA wing of the GOP.” Put differently: They don’t want another NeverTrump Republican who will chummily respond to the liberal hosts’ musings with “yes, but” qualifications (their focus groups suggest that viewers like clash). But they also don’t want an unvaccinated authoritarian who’s going to spit venom in Joy Behar’s face…

The basic challenge currently confronting The View has been flummoxing other mainstream-media enterprises since Donald Trump’s election. During the Reagan-Bush era, when country-club Republicans enjoyed pride of place in red America, it was not difficult to find conservative commentators who evangelized for the party’s animating objectives and honored the norms of cosmopolitan media elites. There is no irreconcilable conflict between advocating for regressive tax cuts and treating your liberal colleagues with basic courtesy while everyone respects the bedrock conventions of a liberal democracy. But today, “owning” liberal cultural elites and denying the legitimacy of elections that Democrats win are more central to Republican politics than supply-side economics or neoconservative foreign policy.