To summarize, here is what Trump inherited from his predecessors in 2016:
- Reagan: Swagger; tax cuts and deregulation; playing to the white Christian base.
- Limbaugh: Anger; never-ending culture wars.
- Gingrich: Civility is for wimps; use of the new media landscape.
- Murdoch: A mass audience for reactionary swaggering and whining.
- George W. Bush: An establishment in disrepute after Iraq and the Great Recession.
- Palin: Culture warriors with no interest in policy can get on the ticket and prosper.
- Anton: The apocalypse is nigh; it is OK to use any means necessary to save “real America.”
Trump’s contributions to this toxic mix were the constant use of social media to own the libs, corruption and incompetence as disruption of the “deep state,” and a cult of personality. Put them all together, and you have the dangerous mess that is the GOP today.
So where is this going? I will talk about the GOP’s options in the final post in this series.