I was much later to the party, but I did note 4 years ago, after the 2014 elections, that the Republicans swept the South, winning every statewide race by 20 points, including against the Abortion Barbie. What gave us the 20 points? It certainly wasn’t the black vote, despite their large numbers and percentages. It was whites voting between 76 and 89 Republican in the Southern states, because they were so sick of Obama. It was also Hispanics voting 40% Republican, DESPITE no attempt at pandering to them (in fact, just the opposite here in Texas that year).
Apply those numbers to states, like the Upper Midwest, which are still mostly white, and you have an election lock, as Trump showed.
Then comes 2016 and Trump. There was a guy, and I never got his name, a Republican ‘strategist’ with access to big money, who told all the candidates (prior to Trump announcing), that NOT A DIME of the big money would come their way if they made immigration an issue - I guess because it was ‘divisive’?!?
So the country’s MOST IMPORTANT ISSUE was off-limits to the Republicans...that’s what our party had degenerated to.
...and then Trump came.
Amen.