America..

[Still Sensible]

2. When they figured out they could raise copious

amounts of money and win elections by aligning with them.

The GOP was a perpetually minority party following the Great Depression... for five decades! They had not been able to win majorities in either chamber and only elected two presidents--war hero and centrist Eisenhower and Richard Nixon. The latter only won because LBJ's presidency was mired in the war. Wallace's third party candidacy almost gave Humphrey the win anyway, but the stage was set for the "Dixiecrats" to go to the dark side.

The civil rights movement led southern and other bigots to the republican fold... then lo and behold the Roe decision led to the GOP discovery that their candidates could raise never before seen boatloads of campaign cash, with the help of fundamentalist churches.

The GOP/Hooveresque agenda for big business, anti-labor, pro-banking and fuck the poor was simply a loser by itself. Nixon started this evolution with his "southern strategy" reaction to the civil rights movement. By the time Reagan came around, the GOP had figured out that climbing in bed with the religious right gave them an alliance that could win elections.

Unfortunately, those wins in the last three decades have led to much of the Hooveresque agenda being enacted. The incredibly conservative Supreme Court and decisions like Citizens United have only been possible because the GOP jumped all-in with the religious right.