From Politico, the worst convention in U.S. history? Several historians on how the 2016 Republican National Convention stacks up. Steve Benen on the opportunity cost of the Republican convention. Trump’s appetite for destruction: Matt Taibbi on how the disastrous convention doomed the GOP. Michael Grunwald on what we learned in Trump’s Cleveland: The GOP remains divided on ideology, united on attitude. How did somebody so inept turn the Republican Party into something so obscene? He didn’t, it already was that way, he just showed up — the “political mainstream” is the trouble. This week we saw that the Republican Party — not just Trump — is the problem. Trump happened because conservatism failed. Trump has officially inaugurated post-movement conservatism: Like Goldwater, he has taken the GOP into new territory. Jonathan Chait on Donald Trump Jr. and the future of conservative populism.
Republican intellectual Avik Roy explains why the Republican Party is going to die. Jonathan Freedland on the end of Republicanism: After the convention, many Republicans are worried that Trumpism does not respect the prudent, cautious, free-market conservatism they value; Trump is turning his back on decades of Republican Party doctrine and, for millennials especially, making the Republican Party a “toxic brand”. How Donald trump broke the conservative movement (and my heart): The conservatism of Goldwater, Reagan, and Buckley and its romantic notions of limited government dominated Republican politics for half a century; the rise of Trump marks a seismic shift for those of us for whom this wasn’t just a philosophy — it was an identity. Don’t be shocked by Donald Trump: The pundits say he’s an aberration — modern history proves otherwise. Even if Donald Trump loses, the worst is yet to come.
“I alone can fix it”: Peter Ross Range on the theory of political leadership that Donald Trump shares with Adolf Hitler. Feisal G. Mohamed on Arendt, Schmitt and Trump’s politics of “nation” (and a response by Roger Berkowitz).
