Hard Right: The GOP's Drift Toward Extremism

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.