I remember a clip from a McCain rally and he was going around, asking people questions, letting them talk to the microphone, etc. One lady said she didn't like Obama because he was Muslim. McCain shut her down and said something to the effect of "he's a good man, we just have different opinions on how to run the country". That stands out a lot to me in hindsight.

It's always been there, Harlan Crowe has been a supporter of Clarence Thomas since the early 90's, and the difference between Confederates and Nazis is only razor thin, so those types have always quasi gotten along, or even where the Klan meetings were on w Wednesday and the Nazi meetings were on Thursdays for some of these people, meaning that there's a lot of crossover, especially wheb you factor in that Hitler was heavily influenced by the American Confederacy.

Where the Nazis really started showing up in public more was during the energence of the Tea Party, where the Alt-Right basically came out of the closet to join the Republican party.

Any Republican that would have been interested in a centrist governance framework has been run out by this point. There were waves upon waves of primarying and infighting starting with the Tea Party purging moderates from that party.

Everyone keeps forgetting about the tea party. It cracks me up. This is totally the tea party having its effect on the right.

This was true only ~15 years ago. My how things have changed. The Tea Party replaced the old progressives, where like GW Bush even provided government funding to feed the homeless, teach kids, etc. Then even before that finished happening the Alt Right took over from the inside. Now I don't even know what to call the latest movement, although it seems to no longer matter if it is already over and the Alt Right is back in power with Trump at the helm again.

I have heard that the person most single-handedly responsible for the rift before all that was Newt Gingrich, who proposed the hard-line stance of obstructionism, where after that cooperation was seen as weak while before that it was a strength.

this is why I don't take seriously anyone who says that both parties are the same or two side of the same coin. maybe you could make that argument 40 years ago. but these days saying that is a shorthand to me that "I don't pay attention to what's going on in the news." clearly one party's mainstream has gone extreme and you have to be willfully ignorant to not see it.

Facism and race "science" has always been the backbone of American conservatism. We are just in a period of time where they are more open about it. And honestly, they might not even be any more open about it, it's just that social media makes it easier to see; legacy media has always been hesitant to call out the right's racism, when when it overt.

The modern Republican party was literally founded on anti-black racism. We've all heard of the Southern Strategy by now, but it was in 1957 that the RNC started "Operation Dixie" which was aimed at recruiting white southern voters (Dixiecrats) away from the Democrats.

By 1970, you have Nixon's GOP strategist saying this,

From now on, the Republicans are never going to get more than 10-20% of the negro vote... the more negroes that register as Democrats... The more the negrophobe whites will quit the Democrats and become Republicans. That's where the votes lie.

We never actually de-Nazified after 1945. Between Operation Paperclip, Operation GLADIO, and the rat-lines to Latin America, we just shuffled the Nazi deck chairs on the Nazi Titanic.

In October 1945, in order to constitute a working legal system, and given that 90% of German lawyers had been members of the Nazi Party, the British decided that 50% of the German Legal Civil Service could be staffed by "nominal" Nazis. Similar pressures caused them to relax the restriction even further in April 1946.

This failure to de-Nazify post-war Europe, combined with the need to engage mercenaries and scientists in the ramp up to Truman's war in Korea and the coups in Greece, Albania, and Iran, led to a kind-of global re-Nazification. Former Nazis took power in South Africa, in Brazil, in the newly reconstituted West Germany, and became influence brokers in Egypt, Jordan, and Turkey.

From the Prescott Bush and Thomas J. Watson days of outright collaboration with Fascist Governments to the United Fruit Company rampaging through Latin America to Reagan's Iran-Contra deal, we've been working hand-in-glove with Nazis practically since their inception.

Frogs been boiled

who is maybe the perfect reflection of what everyday conservatives have become, ignorant, stupid, and incredibly well off while whining about how they’re not well off enough.

I wouldn't say they're that representative of a lot of everyday conservatives. A lot of them are doing pretty poorly, but they're ignorant and get pissed off at the idea that anyone else might benefit from a program they personally don't qualify for or disagree with. My father is absolutely convinced that if the Democrats had the political will and ability to implement a wealth tax, that he would somehow be absolutely murdered by taxes on his $10 or $11 an hour he's making at a Winn Dixie in Florida. He's also the sort convinced that welfare queens living it up with brand new cars and designer clothes are not just a real thing, but a common thing that happens that Democrats just don't want people to know about. He'd probably also chalk up his retirement sucking due to what limited social safety net we have in the US, rather than him draining his retirement accounts while he was unemployed before hitting retirement age so he could play golf and go hang at the bar with his buddies even though he was broke. Medicare is his right, though, he worked for that and earned it, but screw these poors under 65 trying to get healthcare with Medicaid. About the only thing he's missing for your average, everyday conservative is an unhealthy dose of religion.

Having two of the most charismatic Presidents in American history

Lincoln and JFK? No, wait, the two Roosevelts? No, Reagan and Lyndon Johnson? Jefferson and Washington?

If you're talking about Obama and Clinton, sure they were relatively charismatic compared to boring presidents like Bush Sr., Jimmy Carter, Gerald Ford and Richard Nixon. But, US history is filled with very charismatic presidents. Even Bush Jr. was fairly charismatic, that's how he managed to rile up the country to take part in the "War on Terra", and how showing up at ground zero and putting on a hard hat was so important for so many people.

The problem with Jeb Bush wasn't George Bush Jr., it was Jeb Bush. He wasn't very charismatic, wasn't a deep thinker, wasn't a leader, etc. The Bush name isn't toxic among Republicans, it's just that Jeb has even less charisma than Hillary Clinton.

As for what killed the GOP, it's much more complicated than just two somewhat charismatic Democratic presidents:

• The financial crisis, and how the US focused on stabilizing the banking system without also helping the little people
• A black president, driving racists to the GOP and making them determined to vote
• Centrist presidents taking fairly moderate economic policies, destroyed the GOP's image as the party of fiscal responsibility
• Clinton and Obama not shying away from military solutions to problems made the GOP's image of the hawkish party weak

So, when the GOP was at a period where it was trying to figure out how to define itself, Trump arrived and defined it as the anti-establishment, dog-whistle racist, christian theocratic party.

Trump did very publicly tell members of the Proud Boys, which is a recognized hate group, to "stand back and stand by". So in allowing Trump to run the party they must also allow in all these wannabe Nazis, as these are his people, his "muscle". He very much sees himself as the mob boss he has always wanted to be, but becoming president allowed him to create this cult that also has no issue answering his calls for violence.

Trump also has no loyalty to anyone, which is irony lost on a man that demands it from everyone else. And I think most in the party know by now that unless you want the cult putting the crosshairs on your back, you better stay in line.

Exactly.

Try to tell a conservative that fascism is a right-wing ideology; they'll reject the premise every time. This is because either:

• they're playing cryptofascist games and enjoy pissing you off
• they're brainwashed into thinking evil=left and will never consider any alternative

So they're either on board or a useful idiot. I invite people to try it sometime if they don't believe me.

They're right that it was a frog boiling in water situation, except that it started decades ago and the frog has been long boiled

It's all the lead poisoning! I'm telling you! I've been saying it for years.