"The Conservative Movement Is Fundamentally Broken"

"Goldwater opposed the Civil Rights Act of 1964. He himself was not especially racist—he believed it was wrong, on free market grounds, for the federal government to force private businesses to desegregate. But this 'principled' stance identified the GOP with the pro-segregation camp in everyone’s eyes, while the Democrats under Lyndon Johnson became the champions of anti-racism.

This had a double effect, Roy says. First, it forced black voters out of the GOP. Second, it invited in white racists who had previously been Democrats. Even though many Republicans voted for the Civil Rights Act in Congress, the post-Goldwater party became the party of aggrieved whites.

"'The fact is, today, the Republican coalition has inherited the people who opposed the Civil Rights Act of 1964—the Southern Democrats who are now Republicans,' Roy says. 'Conservatives and Republicans have not come to terms with that problem.'"

Zack Beauchamp at Vox talks with Avik Roy about the decline of the Republican Party.

As does Molly Ball at The Atlantic.

And Norman J. Ornstein and Thomas E. Mann explain how the Republican Party produced Donald Trump.