It was not all that long ago that the Republican Party stood for the rule of law and defended America’s most cherished institutions.

The Grand Old Party, or even earlier the Gallant Old Party, could be counted on to support free trade, assert America’s preeminent role as a world power and at least give lip service to fiscal responsibility and budgetary restraint.

Though there were lapses and inconsistencies, humans being fallible and politicians especially so, Republicans as the nation’s conservative party championed modesty and humility along with personal rectitude.

That all now seems like so much ancient history. Ronald Reagan, the party’s defining leader not that many decades back, borrowed from a 1630 sermon by John Winthrop and spoke often of America as “a shining city on a hill.”

Fast forward to the most recent decade during which Donald Trump made the Republican Party his servant with a core message of “American carnage” as if the country is a horror film with decline its destiny.

Conservatism is an important political ideology and an honorable tradition. For many years, it was the home base of considerable intellectual ferment and experimentation. In times of tumult such as the current era, it is critical that informed conservatism have a seat at the governing table, either at the head or as a strong counterbalance.

Nearly 10 years into the Trump dominion over all things Republican, it is abundantly clear that his values, such as they are, and his ill manner are antithetical to anything resembling classical conservative doctrine.

Please read again those first few paragraphs of this piece. Is there a single one of those long-held tenets that Trump espouses or embodies?

In his book, the rule of Trump supersedes the rule of law. Jan. 6 was the exclamation point on his utter disregard for core institutions and traditions.

Instead of free trade, he favors crippling, inflationary tariffs. His personal trail of bankruptcies speaks to his lack of interest in matters of fiscal health and discipline. His chumminess with Putin leads him to bend a knee to Russian aggression in Ukraine.

Reagan must be turning in his grave. “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall” has given way to, “Vlad, my friend, is there anything else we can do for you? Please help yourself to Moldova and Estonia as you wish.”

As to the qualities of modesty, humility and rectitude, Trump’s entire being signals his contempt for such fundamentally conservative virtues.

Trump is very much as he seems. His narcissism is textbook. Flouting norms that constrain most decent people is as central to him as the act of breathing. While he provides entertainment and a sense of belonging to his ardent supporters, and while some share in his voluminous grievances, even a sizable number among his base turn away from his excesses.

Rare is the person, save for Lindsey Graham, who turns to Trump as some kind of role model or example of how to lead one’s life.

Give Trump credit for remaking a somewhat stodgy party into a voice for many in the working class. Democrats have been complicit in this political transformation with their ever-expanding cultural liberalism, their obsession with group identity and their thinly veiled scorn for those left behind by globalization, technology and elite education.

Indeed, those outside of society’s inner circle deserve a proponent. But Trump exacts a terrible price in that role.

Under his unyielding domination, conservatism has been thrown out the window while his party has too often handed the keys to the worst elements in their ranks.

The likes of Trump-anointed figures such as Mark Robinson, Laura Loomer, Matt Gaetz and Marjorie Taylor Greene – to go along here in Colorado with Lauren Boebert and Dave Williams – have branded the GOP an unserious group, bordering on the outright loony.

Each party has its share of fringe figures. However, in Trump’s Republican Party, the wacky fringe has become center-stage players.

I recall an interview years back with a senior aide to former Florida Gov. Bob Martinez who governed the Sunshine State during the years of Reagan and the first Bush. This Republican operative noted that the party has always had an extreme wing of nut cases to which you needed to occasionally throw a small morsel of red meat.

However, in this gentleman’s telling, these outer-edge sorts had gone from making up 10% of the party to now running the show.

As the GOP has become ever more Trumpified and as extreme figures now enjoy access through the front door, it has also become a losing party.

In 2016, Trump threaded the thinnest of needles to win an electoral college majority while losing the popular vote by nearly three million. In the midterm election of 2018, Democrats realized a blue wave, gaining control of the U.S. House and picking up a number of governorships. Come 2020, Trump lost his reelection bid by seven million votes. Democrats retained their House majority while also taking control of the Senate. Then in 2022, the expected Republican wave in President Biden’s mid-term election never materialized.

Since 2016, it has been a downhill journey for Republicans and for conservatives. That is fact, no matter how some may spin it or deny it.

When the history of these times is written, Trump will receive his share of deserved censure. But the worst marks for dishonor will go to all those Republicans who knew better and yet forsook principle for the sake of team play and out of fear of Trump’s base.

The descendants of Marco Rubio, Ted Cruz, Tim Scott, Tom Cotton, the aforementioned Lindsey Graham and scores of others will not like what they read about this sad chapter of conservative spinelessness.

Simply put, Trump is incompatible with conservatism. For those who believe in quintessential conservative thought and for others who just want a return to the days of two semi-responsible, semi-competent parties to balance each other out, the first imperative is a Trump exit via defeat.

With the Senate near certain to be in Republicans hands for the next several years and with a conservative majority firmly in place on the Supreme Court, the short-term risk would seem minimal.

Only after Trump is in the rearview mirror will conservatives have the chance to reclaim their philosophy and honor. Only then can the country turn the page on this ugly interlude brought to you by one of the least able, least deserving hucksters ever to disgrace our national stage.

Eric Sondermann is a Colorado-based independent political commentator. He writes regularly for ColoradoPolitics and the Gazette newspapers. Reach him at EWS@EricSondermann.com; follow him at @EricSondermann