Free Republic

Donald Trump will change everything. This seems to be the consensus among anti-establishment Republicans. According to the latest ABC News/Washington Post poll, Trump leads among anti-establishment primary voters with an actual majority of 51 percent. And a full 51 percent of Republicans think Trump is "the best choice to bring needed change to Washington, perhaps the single most crucial attribute to leaned Republicans." Trump makes this case, too. He's said that he's the establishment's worst nightmare. He says he's too rich too be bought, too independent to care about what his enemies say, too powerful to be stopped. He'll stand...

I've been hearing about the impending "conservative crackup" for nearly 25 years. The term was coined by R. Emmett Tyrrell Jr., the founder of the American Spectator. He meant that conservatism had lost its philosophical coherence. But the phrase almost instantly became a catchall for any prediction of the right's imminent demise or dissolution. These dire prophesies always reminded me of those "Free Beer Tomorrow" signs. As Annie sings, tomorrow is "always a day away." Well, thanks to Donald Trump, tomorrow may be here. There's a fierce internecine battle over whether to oppose Trump's run, passively accept his popularity, or...