Bush is the reason I stopped voting on the federal level for many years.
BINGO!
Trump is the consummate huckster. He saw an opening in the Republican Party after it had been hijacked by psychos, liars, hypocrites, bigots, and retards.
That's why he changed his registration from Democrat to Republican. He knew where the suckers are. He could smell 'em a mile away.
The roots of this are in talk radio. From Trump's perspective, it was
a salesman's best possible situation: A large, easily-identifiable, easily reachable, angry, frustrated, paranoid group of people who had been told by talk radio (and later Fox and the internet, of course) that even THEIR OWN PARTY had let them down. They had been manipulated into believing that the world was against them and that all was lost.
They desperately needed a leader who "understood" them.
They were
so desperate for a savior that he easily convinced them that he is a brilliant, strong, patriotic, self-made, honest Christian man who loves his country and just wants to help. THIS guy. Of all fucking people. I guess they figured this was gonna be the best they could do.
And on top of that, he "fought" for them. And even though his version of "fighting" is juvenile, childish and embarrassing, they didn't care. Finally someone was fighting for them, because they were helpless and lost.
To steal a line from
rightwinger, Trump took one look at the talk radio crowd and said, "
this is gonna be
easy". The crooked salesman found his prey and ran with it.