The Colin Powell Republican no longer exists in the Republican Party
CNN
When Colin Powell announced that he would not run for president in 1996, he also made a promise.
"I believe I can help the party of Lincoln move once again close to the spirit of Lincoln," Powell said, a line that was, in the words of The New York Times, a "clear reference to the issues of race, opportunity and social welfare that had him at odds with ranking conservative Republican ideologues who threatened fierce resistance to his candidacy."
By the time of Powell's death on Monday from complications of Covid-19, his 25-year-old pledge to transform the Republican Party into a diverse coalition organized around opportunity and social welfare seems deeply quaint -- a hope unrealized as the GOP moved well beyond the extreme bounds of what even Powell could have envisaged two-plus decades ago.