Conservatives have long quarreled strenuously among themselves about fundamental ideas and matters of principle, as well as practical political decisions such as whether Eisenhower or Nixon deserved conservative support or opposition, or whether Barry Goldwater’s insurgency was a good idea. But none of those past struggles comes close to the intensity and magnitude of the divide over President Trump.
This divide is not going away any time soon, nor should it. Infighting has strengthened the conservative movement over the years. But there’s reason to worry that the deepening bitterness of the conservative Trump wars could shatter the coalition at a moment when the Democratic Party’s lurch to the far-left might create the greatest crisis our political order has ever faced. In its current state, it is possible we could have a leftist government in power that would make Barack Obama look like a Rockefeller Republican by comparison.
