I like citing Max Boot, because he is the only Never Trump Conservative I know (I don’t claim to have a complete list) who went back to analyze Trumpist racism and nativism, and admitted its close relationship to the Conservative movement he once backed. I’ve been reading Boot since he was the Daily Cal’s token conservative columnist, when he was writing typical teenager Ronald Reagan fanfic. He knows better now.

Trumpism, like all populist movements, is based on the pernicious conceit that only the strongman speaks for the “real” people and that anyone who opposes him must be an outsider or elitist who isn’t in touch with the common folk. The corollary is that the supreme leader is justified in doing just about anything in the people’s name — even abusing his authority to punish those who don’t support him….  In today’s America, Republicans represent more land area, but Democrats represent more people — having exceeded the Republican tally by 2.8 million votes in the 2016 presidential election and by more than 8.6 million votes in the 2018 House races.

WaPo