Some of this is delusion. The old GOP, aka GOPe, think that they can appeal to what they view as elevated themes and swagger forth with their discredited definition of CONSERVATIVE.
Make no mistake here. CONSERVATIVE means 5 things:
1) Build the Wall
2) Drain the Swamp
3) America First in ALL Things
4) Pro Guns
5) Pro Life
The Bush perspective is NO! It is Lower Taxes, Spend not very much less but more on the Military, Comprehensive Immigration Reform (aka amnesty), and maybe some watered down pro Gun and especially watered down Pro Life.
THEY ARE NOT CONSERVATIVES. They utterly desperately want that to be conservatism so they can use the buzz word conservative, but they are the swamp. They can never embrace Drain The Swamp as conservatism.
THIS is the elevated theme. Pound them with it. They are the Swamp. They are the Swamp.
His little spectacle speech at the 9-11 memorials was the setup for this. He doesn’t care if he gets even 25% of republicans to push for Xhaney. He wants democrats to switch over and line the GOP coffers since the party is in chambers. He really believes that “they” are the “light” and calm of the party. Also, he feels entitled to its ownership.