Wherever Did They Get This Idea?

Matthew Continetti argues that it was a bad idea for his party to nominate a buffoonish demagogue as its candidate for president:

Trump and his supporters overstate his competitiveness by conflating the wishes of the Republican primary electorate with those of the general electorate. Trump will replicate his success, they say, by continuing to do the things that won him the Republican nomination: “telling it like it is,” accepting “the mantle of anger,” not being “politically correct.” This is a huge error. Not only do Trump’s utterances repel Democratic voters—a number of which any successful candidate has to win—but they also frighten Republican ones. Romney got 47 percent of the vote in 2012. To use a real-estate metaphor: How do you expect to build a skyscraper when you are demolishing the foundation?

I cannot dispute any of this. And, yet, it seems like this could use some, I dunno, historical context. “[W]hat failures of education and culture,” asks Chait, “could have left Republican voters predisposed to the propaganda of a grifter who is neither a wonk nor an orator, and who exploits their cultural resentments? Continetti does not provide any answers. Here is one:”

I believe that is what the kids five years ago would have called being “pwned.” Cf. also, Bill Kristol, who remains shocked that the members of his party would want as the presidential nominee what he gave them as the #2 on the ticket 8 years ago.

…Good roundup of the GOP’s affair with Palin from Doug.