THE END OF REAGAN'S GOP

"MAGA is ascendant," crowed Representative Matt Gaetz on Oct. 25. He had reason to be happy. After weeks of chaos, House Republicans had settled on Mike Johnson as Speaker. Johnson is thoroughly in line with nationalist-populist Republicans who engineered Kevin McCarthy's fall, and the episode was another sign that the GOP is no longer Ronald Reagan's party. It is Donald Trump's.

- MATTHEW CONTINETTI

Since Reagan left office nearly 35 years ago, the GOP has defined itself negatively. The coalition comes together based not on an affirmative program but in protest over someone else's. The party's greatest moments have been acts of rebuke.

First came the election of 1994. Republicans won control of Congress for the first time in 40 years in a rejection of Bill Clinton's health care plan, tax hikes, and liberal social views. George W. Bush ran in 2000 to "restore integrity to the White House," a subtle dig at the character of his otherwise popular predecessor.

Things became more difficult for Republicans as affluent voters and voters with advanced degrees, along with millennial and eventually Gen Z voters, turned away from social conservatism. The failures of the Bush Administration didn't help. Nor did the lackluster presidential campaigns of John McCain and Mitt Romney.