Covid-19 has unmasked what the Republican Party stands for.

This statement in the article includes an erroneous presupposition.

Similarly, Trumpism adapts the traditional Republican attachment to individual freedom and mutates it into a darker, Darwinian belief that the strong individual can and should do whatever they like, and to hell with the "suckers and losers" who might suffer as a result.

The latter is what the Republican Party has really stood for since decades ago, but it tried to disguise that stand until recently.