For 70 years, the Republican Party has dominated American politics.
Three things that had their origins within the Republican Party have foretold our future: the rise of a personal presidency that placed the president above the party; a conservative rebellion that propelled the candidacies of Robert Taft, Barry Goldwater and Ronald Reagan and the collapse of the GOP establishment that allowed Donald Trump to achieve a hostile takeover of the party apparatus.
During the Roosevelt-Truman era, the Republican Party lost five straight presidential elections. No major party in the modern era has suffered such a wipeout and survived. As Thomas E. Dewey, a twice-defeated Republican candidate in those years, perceptively noted in my book, “Grand Old Unraveling: The Republican Party, Donald Trump, and the Rise of Authoritarianism”:
“Sixteen years in the wilderness transforms a party.”
Republicans eventually found a winner in Dwight D. Eisenhower. But Eisenhower’s success came at the Republican Party’s expense. Instead of relying on the party to win, Eisenhower created “Citizens for Eisenhower.” Led by the titans of big business, the group boasted of having 29,000 clubs and 250,000 members, including independents and disaffected Democrats.
Eisenhower’s successors followed his lead and separated themselves from their party, including Democrats Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton and Barack........