‘What Happened’ for Conservatives

The Washington Post says How the Right Lost Its Mind by Charlie Sykes “is a sort of What Happened for conservatives.”

“The culprits are not James Comey, Vladi­mir Putin or a reality television  opponent, but the return of ‘crackpotism’ on the right; the fecklessness of conservative media, political and religious figures; and the rise of a distorted worldview in which Trump’s overwhelming character flaws mattered little to a base that behaved as though civilization was in play in his election.”

“It is a sanitized image of conservatism, no doubt, but Sykes seems heartfelt in his lament. The insanity he purports to chronicle — on the book cover, the title is stitched across a red baseball cap — did not begin in 2016 or 2015, or even during this young millennium. Sykes reminisces about the mid-20th century, when his hero, William F. Buckley Jr., was casting out Birchers and Ayn Rand devotees from the conservative movement… But today’s conservatives have failed to do the same.”