I mean books have been written about, and will be written about it for decades to come. But for me, the GOP began going to shit in around 2006 when Bush's ratings fell to the low 30s. That was the year of the huge anti-Iraq protests. Republicans were turning on him, and the term "RINO" came back into fashion.

They wanted a revival. The response to the McCain nom was lukewarm, at best. Enthusiasm with the GOP base exploded upon the selection of Palin, and grew even as she was derided by the mainstream press - they were defensive, it seemed. Obama cleaned McCain's clock.

Although it was astroturfed to hell, the Tea Party movement gained steam and the GOP succeeded in congressional elections. For those who don't remember, the Tea Partiers were indeed a mass movement of sorts - they had bodies at least, to march on the capital and leaflet in local communities. I'm still convinced that at least part of the Tea Party movement was driven by racism.

Nobody in 2012 represented this segment of the GOP. The establishment won resoundingly, represented by Mittens. The runner ups were Gingrich, Santorum, and Ron Paul. So you can see the anti-establishment fervor, barely contained. GOPers turned on Romney faster than whiplash. These nominees usually remain as party elders, but Romney was just banished.

2016, the GOP masses weren't going to be punked again. It's hard for us to understand because we don't consort in those conservative circles. But they had be denied in 2008, 2012, and it was a foregone conclusion as early as late 2015 that Hillary was going to be the Dem nominee. So in that sense, it wasn't all that surprising that the actual voters chose someone to completely antithetical to the GOP establishment.

Lastly, since we're all talking on the internet, we also have to take into account the confluence of GOPers and meme culture. Irony and cynicism predominated. It was "cool" to be means spirited, edgy, and having the attitude to "want to blow up the system".