The Skowronek Theory of Presidential Cycles

[izixs]

I'm generally skeptical of pattern matching when it comes to political trends on this scale. Aka, reading too much into the back and forth while not giving much consideration to the underlying currents producing the top level results (which may or may not have cyclical trends themselves).

But I don't really need to go there for this one as the notion of a disjunctive as defined outside the orthodoxy of the party would require, if it were to be the description of Trump, for him to actually be outside the mainstream of the Republican party. The differences between him and someone like McConnell are minor in terms of policy, with all the contrasts coming in the form of personality and level of criminality (though McConnell is hardly clean, he's much more so than Trump because unlike Trump, McConnell's smart enough to keep his corruption out of view and/or falling through loopholes the Republicans are happy to keep open for this kind of thing).

And what more, Trump is also very much in line with the rank and file of his party. His values, as awful as they are, are also their values. He is very much a perfect representation of the Republican electorate. Therefore, he is by no means outside the party orthodoxy at either end of things.