I wish I could dismiss Trump as a failure. I cannot. In a certain sense, Trump was a “smashing” success. He smashed the Reagan legacy, the Republican Party, and the Capitol. He also smashed modern conservative rationalism for the foreseeable future. Unless the Republican Party comes to its senses and rejects Trumpism they are doomed to a feedback loop of a white supremacist ideology.

My connection of Reagan to Trump was meant to be somewhat sarcastic. Let me try to clarify. I do not believe, as some leftists do, that Trump is the inexorable result of extremist right-wing cause and effect. That Trump is the stepchild of Reagan. Trump is not that. Trump is the purpose that crystalizes the Alt-Right cause. Trump’s myriad Hitlerian grievances make that clear.

I agree that Reagan was rational, with a political philosophy. Trump is an irrational ideologue, but it does not matter. Trump’s purpose is irrational in a representative democracy, and that makes him and his cult of devoted followers extremely dangerous ideologues.