Anne Applebaum’s exploration of Laura Ingraham begins at a January 1995 cocktail party at David Brock’s home where an A-List of still-familiar conservatives convened to celebrate the swearing in of Newt Gingrich’s new Republican majority in the House of Representatives. This gives Appelbaum the opportunity to explore two different career trajectories. On one side are people like the host Brock, Bill Kristol, David Frum, John Podhoretz, and herself who have since broken with the Republican Party over it’s increasing xenophobia, racism and radicalism. On the other side are folks like Roger Kimball, Dinesh D’Souza, and Ingraham who have embraced and led these changes.

I don’t find Ingraham particularly interesting, but Applebaum is probably correct when she identifies a dread kind of pessimism about the future of the country as the primary explanation for her transformation from a happy Reaganite warrior into a Buchananite Know-Nothing. And that got me thinking a bit about how Republicans have responded to losing an increasing share of the minority vote.

This isn’t exactly a chicken and […]