Can Paul Ryan save what’s left of conservatism?

“Toxic sludge, racism, disinformation, and attacks on democracy.”

This is how Charlie Sykes, a conservative commentator and editor of The Bulwark, recently described the Fox News diet to his longtime friend — and Fox News board member — former House Speaker Paul Ryan.

It was a stunning interview between two principled conservatives who openly lament the direction the Republican Party has gone.

Sykes probed Ryan on his responsibility for Fox’s content.

“I have a responsibility to offer my opinion and perspective and I do that, but I don’t go on TV and do it, right. So I offer my perspective, my opinion, often,” Ryan replied. “I’ll just leave it at that.”

As for why he remains with Fox, a network whose hosts and executives are under fire for knowingly promoting election lies: “I want to see the conservative movement get through this moment. And I think Fox is a big part of the constellation of the conservative movement.” I feel his pain. A student of the Jack Kemp school of economic conservatism, a devout Catholic and a principled former star of the Republican Party, Ryan has watched the American right morph into something unrecognizable over the past eight years.

Since 2015, the right’s constellation of institutions were taken over and corrupted by a singularly deleterious and destructive force named Donald Trump.

The 2012 “autopsy” that movement conservatives like me worked on to bring new voters into the party, including millennials, minorities, women and LGBTQ voters, was fed into a shredder by Trump and craven Republicans around him.

Trump convinced far too many on the right to jettison conservatism in order to accommodate his narcissistic, ignorant and often divisive whims. Gone were things like the big tent, family values, small government, fiscal responsibility, worry over the debt and deficit, anti-protectionism, public service, policy debates, institutional knowledge, expertise, comity and decency. In came anger, greed, division, fiscal irresponsibility, tariffs, family separation, a weaponized government, culture wars, incompetence, willful ignorance, and conspiracy theories.

I’m acutely aware of how disorienting this likely was for Ryan, as it was for me. The difference is, he’s still on the inside of it. After retiring from the House he took a job on the board of Fox News, which abandoned conservatism (and journalism, more notably) for Trumpism.

As we’re now learning from text messages and sworn testimony, Fox hosts and executives knowingly promoted election lies to viewers in fear that they would lose them to rival media outlet. They strategized over how to keep Trump happy, appease big sponsors like MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell, and cater to viewers’ desire for more election fraud conspiracy theories.

Ryan believes that he can help steer Fox back to the conservatism he remembers. The problem is, there’s no conservatism left at Fox to restore.

Trump and Fox conditioned their audience to stop caring about things like policies and principles so that they could focus on things like Mr. Potato Head, Confederate statues, and drag queen story hour.

Principled conservative voices like Jonah Goldberg and Stephen Hayes left Fox in protest of its propaganda, junk science and election lies. And Fox execs know full well that the energy in the GOP is with Trump and angry conspiracy nuts like Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, and not with good conservatives like Ryan and Sen. Mitt Romney. Viewers are convinced that conservatism wasn’t as important as owning the libs.

I’m afraid that when it comes to Fox — and perhaps the GOP at large — the conservatism has left the building.