Tim Chapman and John Shelton argue that to understand what President Trump means for the future of the political right, we must look back to 2016:

Voters were not buying a new creed [in 2016]; they were hiring a change agent to deliver an existing one. The decade preceding Trump’s ascent was marked by a widening gap between conservative promises and conservative governance. Medicare was expanded under President George W. Bush despite conservative objections. Federal spending rose under Republican trifectas rather than falling. Obamacare survived repeated Republican electoral victories and a Supreme Court challenge. By the time of the 2008-2009 bailouts, the base was furious. The party still championed limited government, free markets, social conservatism, and a strong national defense. Yet its actions did not match its words.

Voters were not buying a new creed [in 2016]; they were hiring a change agent to deliver an existing one.

The decade preceding Trump’s ascent was marked by a widening gap between conservative promises and conservative governance. Medicare was expanded under President George W. Bush despite conservative objections. Federal spending rose under Republican trifectas rather than falling. Obamacare survived repeated Republican electoral victories and a Supreme Court challenge. By the time of the 2008-2009 bailouts, the base was furious. The party still championed limited government, free markets, social conservatism, and a strong national defense. Yet its actions did not match its words.

Chapman and Shelton — president and vice president of policy, respectively, at Advancing American Freedom — argue that all this gave rise to the Tea Party, which demanded that the GOP “do what it had long promised.” But, in their telling, “even after sweeping the House in 2010, the Tea Party produced little durable policy........

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