Among his other accomplishments, Donald Trump, without ever intending to, has fractured conservatism – something that was long overdue. The American conservative movement has come quite a distance since the middle of the last century, from a small coterie viewed with contempt by the larger culture to the front ranks of a juggernaut that set back the plans of this country’s left-wing collectivists to a degree that its founders would not have considered possible. (Recall William F. Buckley’s statement that the role of conservatism was to “stand athwart history, yelling “stop.”  Incredible as it may seem, “history” did stop.) Today, in large part due to its own success, it is on its way back to coterie status. How has this come about? Here’s a simple outline of the conservative movement as it has consisted up until now: a group of conservative intellectuals, associated either with think tanks or journals, who work out...(Read Full Article)