Joanne: I just cannot understand it….. Do you think there are death threats to persons or their families? Is that the fear?? We all know that malignant creature is jealous that Putin gets to murder his political enemies. Do you think he has convinced that whole maga cult that they or their families will perish? And yes, for sure Nikki will never get back into his graces. He never forgets the slightest slight. He has mentioned that he will likely eliminate the Supreme Court. They have slighted him in the past. He just wants to use them to gain the power he craves. How can a demented, unhinged, evil senile hate-filled creature who shits in his diapers be elevated to a super power? What is it??? People say he stenches like a porta potty. 🚽 yuk.
Bob: No, Nikki supports Trump willingly. She was never all that anti-Trump, it was just the last remaining lane after the other candidates dropped out. Nikki's a political animal, a creature of pure calculation and she realizes that being in the MAGA fold is the only way to stay relevant.
To answer your larger question, it's because the GOP hasn't had a message that's broadly appealing enough to win national elections since the end of the cold war. The last GOP president to win the popular vote was Dubya the year after he launched two wars with US troops. The GOP stands for tax cuts for the wealthy / deregulation and religious authoritarianism, held together by the nationalist glue of a strong military and dominance overseas. This used to be called Reagan's three-legged stool. But after Dubya humiliated the country with the twin catastrophes of Iraq and Afghanistan, that glue dissolved. That the neoliberal gospel of the free market sold to the public since Jimmy Carter (Reagan was its main cheerleader but yes, it was bipartisan) led directly to the Great Recession didn't help, either.
So the GOP no longer had a market for its wares. Look, Obama was a historic figure, a great orator and incredibly charismatic, but he was also woefully inexperienced and shouldn't have been so hard to beat. Both McCain and Romney ran hapless campaigns, drafting on the glories of a past no one believed in anymore. But they did it honorably, without race baiting.
Then a diaper wearing, Adderall snorting legend in his own mind with a reality TV show strode in and the rest is history. Rick will tell you that the GOP megadonors initially despised Trump, but Trump had the secret sauce that McCain and Romney lacked -- demagogy. Trump is a virtuoso at otherization, getting people to blame their problems on those below them. It took them a bit to go all in, but once they did, the megadonor class realized they'd get all the tax cuts and deregulation they could ever want while Trump did his professional wrestling act.
And the GOP has now realized they'd be completely lost without Trump, because they can't sell their policies on the merits nationally without him and the MAGA movement he leads. It's why they've become addicted to gerrymandering, voter suppression and a captive SCOTUS.
Scarily, it's a lot more rational than anyone would care to think.
very well written case for rational explanation for Trumpism.
But I also don't discount the vast irrational mass-movement driven by racism, fundamentalism, anger, fear, resentment and stupidity.