This twitter thread is a brutal takedown on the what passes for the conservative movement these days

[localroger]

10. Trump was supposed to be another useful idiot like Reagan

...and to a less successful extent Bush the Dumber. Hey, he was actually a professional showman, right? But he turned out to be his own animal and his followers were a force the GOP establishment couldn't control. Reagan obediently read his lines and Bush v2 didn't really have a cult of personality. Trump doesn't take direction and while he doesn't have enough rabid followers to dominate the entire culture, he does have enough to dominate a political party. He managed to win the GE by basically lying about everything he intended to do, including paying lip service to enough GOP ideals to earn the elders' grudging support. But once he had the Presidency he used the very mechanisms that had been intended to make sure no populist ideals snuck into their platform to kick out everyone who wasn't willing to kiss his ring. The GOP might not even be the opposition party any more by 2024.