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Opinion | From Buckley to MAGA: The moral decay of the Republican Party

Leaked Young Republican chats glorifying Hitler and violence expose a movement that’s lost its moral compass and abandoned true conservatism.

A Make America Great Again baseball hat.
A Make America Great Again baseball hat. STOCK

There was a time when the Republican Party prided itself on being the party of ideas—the movement of William F. Buckley Jr., Russell Kirk and Ronald Reagan. It was a coalition built on moral seriousness, intellectual rigor and a belief that liberty without virtue was chaos.

But the leaked messages Politico uncovered recently expose a new generation of conservatives who have traded that legacy for something darker—something rotten to its core.

Thousands of private messages exchanged by Young Republican leaders reveal a cesspool of hate and dehumanization. “Everyone that votes no is going to the gas chamber,” one participant wrote. Another added, “I’m ready to watch people burn now.” Then came the casual confession—“I love Hitler”—punctuated with a smiling emoji. Others mocked rape and slavery, called Black Americans “watermelon people,” and told one another, “Stay in the closet f—-t.”

These are not just words; they are examples of consciences seared with a hot iron—young men so morally cauterized that cruelty feels like courage.

And these are not random trolls hiding behind cartoon avatars. They are rising operatives—county chairs, campaign staffers and national delegates—the very people meant to carry the GOP into the future. In the same thread, one bragged, “We are officially under consideration for a Trump endorsement.”

Once, conservatism had a conscience. Buckley exiled the John Birch Society because he understood that hate and conspiracy were incompatible with conservatism’s moral core. Kirk called for “a moral imagination,” the ability to see others as sacred beings rather than enemies. Reagan—however imperfect—spoke of America as a “shining city on a hill,” where freedom was anchored in faith, not fury.

Today, those ideals lie in ashes. In their place, the party’s youth flirts openly with fascism. What once called itself the “party of Lincoln” now tolerates those who joke about gas chambers. The people who should be the future of the movement are busy mocking the very humanity conservatism once sought to defend.

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It’s tempting to dismiss these chats as fringe behavior—the work of a few misfits who don’t represent the whole. But that would be naïve. These messages reflect the same rot we see in national politics: the dehumanization of opponents, the casual cruelty, the fetishization of power. When elected officials mock immigrants, minimize slavery or wink at white nationalism, they set the moral tone for the next generation. This is the result.

The decline didn’t happen overnight. It began when conservatism stopped being about ideas and became about enemies. When rage became currency. When leaders discovered that resentment was more profitable than reflection. The old guardians of the right—those who valued restraint, dignity and reason—were gradually replaced by grifters and provocateurs who learned that moral chaos sells.

Russell Kirk warned of this danger long ago. He wrote that when order is abandoned for the sake of passion, civilization decays. And that is precisely where the Republican Party stands today—in a state of moral decay, hollowed out by its own cynicism.

The GOP once claimed to defend Western civilization. But those who now wrap themselves in that slogan have no idea what it means. The tradition they pretend to honor—the moral philosophy of Aquinas, the civic virtue of the Founders, the humility of Lincoln—has been replaced by adolescent cruelty and Nazi memes. The irony would be laughable if it weren’t so tragic.

And where are the elders? The so-called adults in the room remain silent, fearful of alienating a base that delights in outrage. Silence has become complicity. Each time Republican leaders refuse to condemn this behavior, they signal that hate is not an aberration but a feature.

This insidious infection has not yet permeated the entire Republican Party, but unless there is a reckoning of conscience, it will. Buckley knew it; Kirk did too. Reagan may have seen the future danger, but he let the vipers in anyway—not out of malice, but out of political calculation. He saw a winning coalition, not the longer-term corrosion it would bring. The seeds of moral decay were sown not in one moment, but in a thousand small compromises made for the sake of power.

Buckley once wrote that conservatism is “the politics of reality,” grounded in moral order and reason. Yet this generation of self-styled conservatives traffics in fantasy—the fantasy that cruelty equals strength, that ignorance equals authenticity, that laughter at human suffering is a form of power. What we’re seeing is not conservatism at all; it’s nihilism dressed in red ties and MAGA hats.

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The difference between the conservative tradition and this new mutation is the difference between a moral vision and a mob. The conservative tradition sought to conserve the best of civilization—the rule of law, personal responsibility and the dignity of the individual. The mob seeks only domination—not to conserve, but to destroy.

It’s still unclear whether this movement, with all its fire and fury, will eventually consume itself—rejected by decent people who refuse to live in its shadow—or whether, unchecked, it will continue to grow. The answer depends on whether moral courage returns to those who once called themselves conservatives.

If the party of Lincoln and Reagan wants a future, it must confront this sickness head-on. The conservative tradition in America was never about domination; it was about balance—a belief that freedom must be tethered to virtue, that justice is rooted in truth.

A movement that laughs at gas chambers cannot claim that heritage. A party that tolerates those who say “I love Hitler” has abandoned its moral compass. The GOP’s crisis is not political—it’s spiritual.

Until conservatives remember what Buckley, Kirk and Reagan all understood—that liberty depends on virtue and truth—they will remain lost in the darkness of their own making, the light of conscience extinguished by the very fire they thought would purify.

Bill Britt is editor-in-chief at the Alabama Political Reporter and host of The Voice of Alabama Politics. You can email him at [email protected].

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