I always thought George W. Bush was a political unicorn. On the one hand, as the son of a president with strong ties to the establishment, he was the ultimate insider. On the other hand, he always made a display of his contempt for that same establishment, most notably through his embrace of evangelical religion, and the reactionaries bought it. He had the support of all four factions of the GOP after his election in 2000. It was a magic act, and a tough one to follow.
Remarkably, Donald Trump has almost matched him. On the one hand, the PBPs and the CLs saw him as a savvy businessman who would cut taxes and regulations; his overheated Twitter account could be overlooked for the greater good of wealth pursuit. On the other hand, he constantly reminded everyone that his heart was genuinely with “real Americans,” which meant reactionaries. They consequently chose to disregard his innumerable personal failings, obscene wealth, and ties to New York City, and are his strongest supporters today. Only the CDs, to whom he offered nothing, abandoned him, and by now, they are a tiny minority within the GOP. They only matter in a tight race.
So how did this happen? There are a lot of reasons, and I’ve written about them before, but one of them was the abject failure of the Bush 43 administration in both foreign and domestic affairs. The GOP establishment was totally discredited, the CDs were blamed, and the party moved on, with the Reactionary/PBP quid pro quo still in place, although somewhat threatened by the rise of “national conservatism.”