Fealty: Last night, the Republican National Convention (RNC) was all about kissing Donald Trump's ring. Those he failed to vanquish delivered their (obsequious) speeches, one by one: first, Vivek Ramaswamy; then Texas Sen. Ted Cruz; former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley; and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis. "The imagery was more like the Roman Colosseum, with an emperor looking down from his box in judgment as those audacious enough to cross him tried to find their way back into his favor," writes The New York Times' Jonathan Weisman.
"Haley, Vance, DeSantis, Marco Rubio [whom Trump beat in 2016], and even Vivek Ramaswamy—who remained steadfastly in support of Trump even when he was technically running against him—all represent somewhat different ideological tendencies on the right, from neoconservatism to populism to the new right," writes Reason's Robby Soave. Flashing back and forth between conservatism of yore and conservatism of the future—which seems to barely resemble anything proffered by William F. Buckley or Ronald Reagan—was vertigo-inducing, especially upon realizing that even the old-school conservatives have integrated Trump's animus toward immigrants into their messaging.
