The Brennan brothers created in Sears and Monky Wards the culture that they were great in the 50s with many levels of middle management so they would be great in the future with the same model.
Martinez and every Sears CEO after Brennan had great ideas. The people at the bottom had great ideas. Excessive layers of middle management got pay and status based on the size of their head count and budget.
Middle management sabotaged and refused to implement every great idea that came from both the top and bottom because it would mean change that endangered their comfy spot in the status quo.
Sears bought Prodigy. Some people at Sears had great ideas to turn Prodigy into online sales giant. Middle Management destroyed the idea ... and Prodigy.
Martinez and people at the bottom (of which I was part) had great ideas to modernize the inventory replenishment system. Middle management blocked every single change.
As RNC Treasurer and in control of RNC money Brennan did the same thing with the party. In the daddy Bush era when Republicans were trying to figure out where to go post-Reagan, Brennan financially supported House Minority Leader Bob Michels in saying the Republicans would always be a minority party in the House and Senate. Therefore the Republicans should support Democrats who gave them crumbs from the table like Al-the-Pal Dixon of Brennan's and Bob Michels' Illinois.
The first TeaParty/Deplorable action was defeating Al-the-Pal in the Dem Primary so a Deplorable could clean the swamp 6 years later.
More than any single person, Brennan is to blame for IL being blue.