As the GOP presidential primary campaign gets underway it's fascinating to see how the Republican Party has changed since Donald Trump descended onto the scene back in 2015. Ever since the successful White House runs of Ronald Reagan, virtually every Republican seeking higher office called themselves "conservative" and hewed to the Reagan revolution ideology — described as a "three-legged stool" — that centers global leadership and a strong national defense, traditional family values, low taxes and small government. Within that framework, there were minor differences on specific issues but generally speaking, in order to win the GOP nomination it was required that Republican candidates adhere to that basic philosophy.
In hindsight, it's clear that this may not have been the huge winner Republicans assumed it to be since the party's nominee has won the popular vote for president only once in 35 years. But for decades it was an article of faith in the political establishment and among the mainstream media, as well as the Republican party itself, that those policy priorities were held by a majority of the American people. However, over time, and through several incremental changes that were hard to see at the time, Reagan's conservative movement became a shell of its former self. The right-wing populism popularized by talk radio's Rush Limbaugh and then Fox's Bill O'Reilly and ultimately Donald Trump now defines the Republican Party.
