Writing for The Atlantic as echoed at msn.com, a Kim Phillips-Fein describes something called "The Long Unraveling of the Republican Party." Has the Party changed? Certainly. Has it unraveled? Not yet.
The only way the Democrats (which seemingly includes everybody at The Atlantic) are ever happy with Republicans is when the Rs play the Washington Generals to the Democrats' Harlem Globetrotters. The Bushes I & II, Mitt Romney, Paul Ryan, and John McCain were pleased to be stuffy patsies. When they won they were mostly impotent, and often as not they lost when they should have won.
With Trump, Republicans decided to be as duplicitous, as devious, and as mean as the Democrats. Republicans stopped being the Ds' comic foil. Doing so made the Rs more attractive to blue-collar people who don't find losers lovable or charming. I am certain it also made being a Democrat much less fun.
Change ≠ Unraveling; in this case it means catering to an enlarged clientele with somewhat different priorities.
