Hard Right: The GOP's Drift Toward Extremism

Summary
About The Author

As a Republican, Mona Charen hardly recognizes her own party anymore. The party’s focus has shifted from policy to provocation.

Over time, many mainstream Republicans have embraced extremist views that were once reserved for the fringes—challenging free and fair elections, praising demagogues, encouraging conspiracies, and abandoning basic respect and decency.

The Republican Party crashed through the floor of decency when Donald J. Trump was nominated as the party’s candidate in the 2016 presidential election. Since then, it has continued to find new lows in conspiracism, cynicism, stoked outrage, falsehoods, and finally, insurrection.

In this collection of syndicated columns since 2016, Ms. Charen, a long-time political analyst, calls out the Republican Party for drifting far from its principles, offering sharp criticism and level-headed advice. Charen’s journey has taken her to distrust of excessive partisanship on all sides and a renewed urgency about confirming the values and traditions of small-l liberal democracy.

Mona Charen

Mona Charen is a syndicated columnist and political analyst. She began her career as a speechwriter for Nancy Reagan, and later served as associate director of the White House Office of Public Liaison, before a stint working for Rep. Jack Kemp’s presidential campaign. She then spent six years as a commentator on CNN and has served as a judge of the Pulitzer Prizes. Ms. Charen is policy editor of The Bulwark and host of the “Beg to Differ” podcast.

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