I recently wrote a mixed assessment of How the Right Lost Its Mind, a quasi-confessional account of Republican derangement by conservative former talk-radio host Charlie Sykes. I was eager to probe Sykes for responses to my critique, and he generously agreed to an interview. Sykes is disturbed by the racist and authoritarian elements Trump has exploited, but we don’t fully agree on their sources. Below, we discuss where Trumpism comes from and how the party lost its mind: