Jon Chait makes an important point, though I struggle with the nomenclature. He says that Trump represents the apotheosis of conservatism. I don't like the term "conservative" applied to what is clearly a reactionary, ethnonationalist, authoritarian and racist movement. But CPAC is gonna CPAC, and they call themselves conservatives, even though there is nothing archetypically "conservative" about their agenda.
This line is key:
Conservatives like to imagine Reagan as the beau ideal of a president who faithfully adhered to their principles, but Trump is the president who has actually done it.
My hope is that the Trump years - "conservatism" unmasked - will kill this malignancy at the heart of American politics that has existed since the days of the John Birch Society and White Citizens' Councils. I doubt it, but I hope we have more Goldwater moments, rather than more Nixon moments.
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