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Man, if only Kristol had remembered that 1950 quote in 2008 when he was on team Sarah Palin. But better late than never, I guess.
This would be a good time to recall that in 1954, the year before Bill Buckley began publishing the National Review which became the bible of modern American Conservatism, he published this defense of McCarthy and his henchmen. 
Buckley's co-author on that defense of McCarthy was L. Brent Bozell, the man who ghostwrote the ur-text of modern American Conservatism, Goldwater's Conscience of a Conservative.
Back in the day when Bill Kristol was a huge cheerleader for the GWB GOP, his comrade in conservative arms Ann Coulter was saying stuff like this about McCarthy and the GOP base was eating it up.
Now that we're talking about Bozell, the author of Conscience of a Conservative, I'm reminded that this summer I learned Bozell was such a fan of Francoist Spain that he moved his family there. A fact that seems newly relevant these days.
Who could have guessed that the GOP would become a party driven by bigotry, fear, and ignorance? Oh, I mean, apart from this guy in 1964.
Ok, and lifelong Republican Jackie Robinson saw it coming in 1964 too. But I mean, why should anyone have listened to him, right?
Enough snark from me. I'm genuinely glad that Kristol has thrown his weight behind the opposition to Trump's illiberalism. But as a historian, I feel like it's important to remember that Trump is in many ways the culmination of the last 70 yrs of conservatism, not an outlier.
Any self-described "conservatism" that arises from the ashes of Trumpism will have to reckon honestly with its long history of illiberalism. If it does not, if it embraces a narrative of innocence with Trump as a black swan, it will just replicate the same pathologies.
While we’re on the topic of narratives of conservative innocence, George Will’s 2019 doorstop of a book is dedicated to his hero, Barry Goldwater, and does not mention Trump.
