by Rick Wilson ‧

Scalpel in hand, a conservative strategist dissects Trumpism, the Washington, D.C., swamp, and the new GOP. The autopsy report isn’t pretty.

While many commentators are intimidated by forum trolls, hate mail, and death threats, veteran Republican political strategist and adman Wilson seems to thrive on them. Best known for his controversial 2008 political ad that smeared Barack Obama for his association with his pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, the author now wields an axe dripping with his own party’s blood. “The disease of Trumpism,” he writes, “has consumed the Republican Party and put the entire conservative movement at risk. It has been hijacked by a bellowing, statist billionaire with poor impulse control and a profoundly superficial understanding of the world.” From Trump’s most vociferous foes to his most loyal lapdogs, everyone is responsible for “President Strangelove.” Refreshingly, Wilson calls the players out, listing the specific complicities of each. From Reince Priebus to Mike Pence (with his “personality of a basket of wet laundry”), Tomi Lahren (“an utterly spoiled little trashfire of a human being, and thus a perfect exemplar of Trump’s media enablers”), Steve Bannon, Paul Ryan, Ted Cruz, Chris Christie, evangelicals, and “Trumpbart,” none escape the whip. From the help of hardcore cheerleaders to the acquiescence of reluctant enablers, and through a complicated knot of self-delusion, personal Faustian deals, and Russian aid, con man “Donald Trump, the avatar of our worst instincts and darkest desires as a nation, now sits in the Oval Office.” While offering no apology for what some consider his traitorous activity against the party he loves, Wilson spells out the Never Trump movement’s underlying higher purpose: “We reject an all-powerful state, whether it’s in the hands of a leftist technocrat or a bright-orange alt-right-curious neofascist.” Throughout, the author reiterates his allegiance and mission to restore limited government conservatism, which he believes is still the driving force and true spirit of the GOP.

Wilson’s insider take is hilarious, smartly written, and usually spot-on. Somebody had to do it.