"What Trump made unmistakable is that the GOP needs to live in fear of its base. Policy and numbers are unimportant, as Trump (keeps) showing them. He commands the mob. The mob runs the party. None of them cares about the budget or the details. None of the Trump voters care about intellectual consistency or actual policy measures; Trump can contradict himself in the same sentence and all they hear is tone, not substance. Trump is there to manifest malice and hostility, period. If the GOP isn't with him they're against him and he'll turn that on them....
The point is that there is no philosophical underpinning left in the GOP. Their stated "policies" are generalities about "smaller government" and "less regulation" and "freedom"--but situationally those and all the rest of the platitudes are defined any way that power wants them to be defined. So in places like Kentucky they've been smartly getting people to sacrifice their own real interests for the sake of slogans.
Trump called their bluff.
He dispensed entirely with the very idea of policy, and made it 100% about pure tone--all he needed (was) to be malicious, nasty, vindictive, and proudly stupid. While Bush and Romney were talking about policy, Trump was wagging his wood and laughing at them. The GOP had been hinting for decades at what Trump said openly--they hate for fun, they won't govern, and they're ready to cash out, so why not just make it clear? Now they must make the all-in final bet on these bluff and lies, shovel as much money offshore as they can carry, and then get the hell out of politics while their heads are still on."
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If you don't recognize all this, all the above, you are very likely a Trump supporter.
If all this doesn't frighten you, nothing can.
If all this doesn't frighten you, nothing can.
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