When the Republican Party started creating policies that only benefited those with concentrated wealth, they set themselves up for a very challenging political game. The game was this: they had to get average Americans to vote for policies that did not benefit them. They thought they were voting on issues like abortion, but it turned out that they were voting to help a small group of investors access cheap overseas labor. In order to be so divorced from reality, the Republican Party needed to build its base out of mentally unstable people. They needed functionally illiterate people - people who don't know the difference between Bin Laden and Hussein. They needed people who don't know the difference between moderate Muslims and radical jihadists. They needed people who were under educated and easily fooled.
Unfortunately these well-meaning people are incapable of electing a candidate who has the sane centrism to appeal to the broad swath of Americans.
The GOP is like a man who goes to bed with a plumper, but doesn't know how to get her to leave in the morning. Meaning: the tea party is great for shutting down health care debate, but not so great when you need to elect a rational human being.
The right should read and re-read the above. It echo's of Thomas Frank's book "What's the matter with Kansas"
...the people at the top know what they have to do to stay there, and in a pinch they can easily overlook the sweaty piety of the new Republican masses, the social conservatives who raise their voices in praise of Jesus but cast their votes for Caesar.
― Thomas Frank, What's the Matter With Kansas?: How Conservatives Won the Heart of America