The deliberate practice of revving up the Republican “base” with increasingly extreme, sometimes fabricated issues also started in the 80s (abortion was one of

The deliberate practice of revving up the Republican “base” with increasingly extreme, sometimes fabricated issues also started in the 80s (abortion was one of the first divisive issues to be used for this), and steadily increased to the point we’re at now. Trump was a sudden inflection point in that practice, but the “facts don’t matter” groundwork was already set. So when he went nuclear with misinformation, the leadership couldn’t do anything but follow along even when they didn’t like where he was going. Social media is a great accelerator for this process.