(Commentary) Scholar David Walsh, who has studied the history of the American right at the University of Virginia, told Beauchamp, “For most parts of the right, there was this idea that you could still redeem the country – that you could reverse these long-term trends by political organizing, electing conservatives to political office, etc. Today, there is this move away from even the trappings of the American democratic tradition – and I think that is linked to the broader sense that this country can no longer be redeemed.”