It’s also worth asking whether the GOP is irredeemably lost. Just 20 years ago, the Republican zeitgeist was about “compassionate conservatism” and “spreading democracy.” Times change, and pendulums swing back and forth (at least, we can hope they do).

Just 20 years ago, the Republican party’s mask of respectability was firmly in place. They used euphemisms like “compassionate conservatism” to make their contempt for the poor seem less than absolute. And “spreading democracy” was only ever an excuse to expand the military-industrial complex. The author hasn’t accepted that whatever good he believes is worth saving in the Republican party is just the bamboozle.