Granted, there’s a bit of both-siderism in this article…

An absolutely devastating piece by @EliotACohen. “It is impossible at this moment to envisage the Republican Party coming back.” (Make sure you read to the very end.) https://t.co/hgIEOkpdky

— Adrienne LaFrance (@AdrienneLaF) September 30, 2018

…but this paragraph is spot-on, and something even genuine Never-Trumpers like Rick Wilson are loathe to admit:

There was always been a dark side to American conservatism, much of it originating in the antebellum curse of a society, large parts of which favored slavery and the extermination of America’s native population, the exclusion of immigrants from American life, and discrimination against Catholics and Jews. Many of us had hoped that the civil-rights achievements of the mid-20th century (in which Republicans were indispensable partners), changing social norms regarding women, and that rising levels of education had eliminated the germs that produced secession, lynching, and Indian massacres. Instead, those microbes simply went into dormancy, and now, in the presence of Trump, erupt again like plague buboes—bitter, potent and vile.