I agree with a lot of what you are saying. As a person who considered himself a republican for a long time... then started distancing myself from that label in favor of being a "conservative".. now it seems that they have co-opted both of those words I don't really want to be associated with either of them any more.

Clem says the downfall of the Republican party started in the 80s.. could be. I've traced my starting point back to 1992, which is the first time I can find any reference to the notion of a "RINO".. which, as it gained popular favor, has forced republicans to move farther right than they wanted to or leave the party. The notion of moderate republicans as "RINOs" has fractured the party significantly. The farther right side of the party (the Trump side) has spent more effort in distancing themselves from decent men like John McCain and Mitt Romney than they have ever spent distancing themselves from the Klan and the gun toting militias.. In fact, they have embraced much of the latter and made it the symbol of what it means to be a mainstream republican...

As the original article points out, old school conservatism was about compassion, it was about charity, it was about having a moral compass while operating in a free economy and a free society. Doing the right thing is something you were just supposed to do, not something you needed to be mandated to do... somewhere along the line, this notion of morality, charity, and decency became inexorably linked to, and synonymous with, being a white Christian... this new version of republicanism decided that white Christians had these traits almost as a birth (and baptism) right but everybody else was questionable and they had to prove themselves worthy... blacks, latinos, gays, asians can all be invited in but they must first prove themselves, white christians get a standing invitation to the cookout.

And lastly, the republican party hasn't really stood for any kind of political platform or had a serious agenda since before Barack Obama was President. Since then they have just been the party of obstruction and defiance. Perhaps that's because McCain and Romney tried to have a more moderate platform and they got such lukewarm support from the entire right side of the republican party, and got crushed in the elections, that the party ultimately decided that being adults and having a defensible platform to try to win hearts and minds of the American people was a bad idea.... and that emotional, angry rhetoric and winging it was a better plan. Multiple republicans are on tape saying in no uncertain terms that they view their role in politics as just defeating everything the democrats want to do.... which I'm fine with if you are defeating it because you have a better plan, but just to obstruct it with no other plan of your own to tackle some of the serious issues we have is just stupid.