@DW2 I suspect the left got far too comfortable having the Bush era controlled opposition being the status quo for "right wing" politicians. Bush, McCain, and Romney made it far too easy for the left to dunk on right wingers, and we would have had more of the same if we got someone like Jeb Bush on the 2016 ticket.
While Trump is not the savior many thought, he exposed the fact that Republicans had been the designated opposition for far too long.
@DW2 You can see how the left's usual playbook against the Bush era politics largely fails when applied to today. Just the fact that the NeoCons have been exposed as being leftist expect on foreign policy issues has deflated this form of attack on the right. Yes, the NeoCons still try and make power plays, but it really fails to make the impact when Dick Cheney of all people (formerly the most evil person ever in the left's eyes) endorsed Kamala Harris. What a joke.
