re: #81 HappyWarrior

Any normal party would have gotten its shit together after Nixon.

They couldn’t; because most of the Republicans who were embarrassed, ashamed, aghast, or [thesaurus needed] by Nixon stopped being Republicans. And people just reaching early adulthood who would have otherwise become Republicans, didn’t.

This was Round 1 in purging the liberal, moderate, good-government, evidence-believing folks from the party.