[pluvmantelo]

I didn’t dislike the man, but looking back I’ve concluded that Bush 43 mortally wounded the party.

[LuvFreeRepublic]

Bush’s fault??? Good grief. Our problems are far bigger than what any one president did and they started long before Bush.

[Dogbert41]

I didn’t dislike the man, but looking back I've concluded that Bush 43 mortally wounded the party.

Bush 41 did a damned good start. 43 was the coup de grâce.

[AzSteven]

I don't think so, or at least not directly. Really the RINO thing has been a problem for a long ime. In fact, pre-Goldwater, the GOP pretty much was nothing but what we think of today as RINOs. Even as the conservatives began to take over the party, those old-line Republicans (and their heirs) were still around, and remained the administrative backbone of the party. Not surprising that, once ceonservatives started to look likely to really cut back the governemnt, those old-line Republicans started to try to take the party back.

Bush 41 was certainly one of the old-line crowd, but was willing to work with conservatives. I think Bush 43 was more conservative than his father, but probably still full of old-line tendencies.

But really once 9/11 and the War on Terror happened, Bush 43 became somewhat irrelevant in the struggle between old-line and conservative until the left managed to demonize the war and the party in power. That was when the old-line types really thought they had a solid lock on re-taking the party, and Bush 43 worked with them because he was pretty much out of allies otherwise.

[itsahoot]

looking back I’ve concluded that Bush 43 mortally wounded the party.

Wisdom follows Knowledge.