1. How should we conceptualize the historical relationship between GHWB's GOP and Trump's? talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/preside…
2. This obit argues that GHWB's loss in '92 and the triumph of the Gingrichites in '94 taught the GOP the lesson that tacking to the center (i.e., trying to actually govern by using the levers of taxation) was political suicide.
3. The author also argues that "the dangers of moderation" is the lesson that GWB took from his father's experience. Mess with the right edge of the GOP coalition and you'll get the horns...so better to placate the Limbaugh/Hannity/Palin constituency than to push back.
4. And thus we can attribute at least some of the rightward, radically anti-institutionalist, Trumpian drift of the GOP to lessons learned and decisions made by the Bushes 41 & 43. A party that turned itself over to Gingrich/Limbaugh was primed for an Alex Jones/Trump takeover.
