Not only is this a deeply felt eulogy for the Conservative agenda by a true believer... but it's also one of the best real-life explanations of the Hegelian dialectic you'll run across. You'll understand how defeat is born in the moment of triumph, and possibly vice versa, a lot better after reading this interview.

I have to admit I am always skeptical of educated liberty-lovers who deny the sick twisted genius of the so-called "Southern Strategy" -- could they really be SO surprised to discover that racism has been the key tactic of the Republican party at least since 1968? -- but everyone knows that demographic check is already in the mail. It is genuinely fascinating to see small-government intellectuals grapple in a deep way with America becoming a more visibly diverse place, a country without a single dominant culture that automatically trumps all others -- a place where they might not actually have a measurable constituency any more.

Would the Second Amendment seem sacrosanct if every African-American, Latino, and Muslim in this country wanted to carry concealed? Do ideals that make visceral sense to country people, far from many government-funded services and able to conveniently ignore others, have any true appeal to an increasingly urban population? When even the most Libertarian younger Americans want to eat burritos in San Francisco and smoke weed in Denver instead of joining the country club, the church, and the school board in their hometowns, what is orthodox Conservatism going to stand for in the future? Those are the questions that the Republican party has to face, and no amount of screaming on Fox News will wish it away.

I did not realize the extent to which conservatives reject Trump until I saw Ted Cruz tell people to vote their conscience.

Maybe Avik Roy and company will be able to solve this problem. I hope they do. America needs a viable, intellectually serious right-of-center party.

Because we now know what the alternative looks like. It’s Donald Trump.