great write up by Victor Hansen.
https://www.realclearpolitics.com/ar...il_138181.html
this explains our turmoil in a nutshell.
Fifth, Trump did not follow the examples of John McCain and Mitt Romney by adhering to the usual Republican Marquess of Queensberry etiquette.
Democrats had assumed that Republicans were on the defensive against boilerplate charges of sexism, racism, homophobia and nativism. Republican functionaries in Congress and within the Washington bureaucracy and punditocracy had grown apologetic and complacent.
Republican politicos had more or less accepted the fact that, while successful at the local and state level, Republicans couldn't win back the presidency -- and that they should live with it and indeed find ways to thrive nobly as the "out" party.
In contrast, Trump's raison d'etre is to fight tooth and nail against a biased media, Democratic opponents, never-Trump Republicans and the proverbial deep state. Had he just taken their blows, remained stoic and not thrashed back, the national scene now would be mostly quie