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Welcome back for this final article in a three-part series on power, principle, and the fracture that happens when one replaces the other.

In Article II, we traced how MAGA didn't evolve conservatism so much as hollow it out.

What had once been organized around restraint, institutional legitimacy, and the rule of law was steadily replaced with loyalty, grievance, and personal power.

The language of conservatism remained intact.
The structure did not.

Conservatism didn't collapse"it was emptied.
That hollowing could never stay abstract.

Once an ideology loses its internal coherence, the pressure doesn't disappear. It migrates"into institutions, into leadership, into public conflict.

Eventually, it becomes visible.

That's where we are now.

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The Fracture Isn't a Revolt"It's a Sorting

What we're witnessing inside American conservatism is not a revolt against MAGA.

It's a sorting process.

Not between left and right.
Not between establishment and outsider.

But between those who still believe democracy imposes limits"and those who believe limits are optional if power is within reach.

The public implosions.
The loyalty tests.
The factional warfare.
The quiet exits and sudden resignations.

These aren't isolated dramas.
They are symptoms of the same structural failure.

And when enforcement mechanisms stop working"when norms are no longer enforced internally"movements don't self-correct?

They fracture.

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The Integrity Test
This is what ties Heritage, Greene, and Pence together.

• Heritage shows what happens when legitimacy is abandoned.


• Greene shows what happens when loyalty stops paying off.


• Pence marks the last broadly recognized boundary before obligation itself became betrayal.

Together, they expose the integrity test now reshaping the American right:

Whether conservatism still recognizes limits on power.
Or whether power itself has become the organizing principle.

This isn't about policy direction.

It's about legitimacy.