I was born when there were only 49 states and Eisenhower was President.
The angst of the Republican electorate is palpable.
I work with several guys who absolutely HATED the idea that Obama was elected, HATE the entire idea of a “Clinton” in power and just simply can not stand liberalism. They see it as the same evil many of us see conservatism.
Why? What the fuck did progressive political thought do to the middle class? I am constantly befuddled by the types of people I come across - honestly decent people who mean well, aren’t monsters, are not stupid, etc., just can not wrap their minds around the fact that the last decent Republican President their party was able to put forward was Dwight D. Eisenhower and are completely and utterly blind to the damage Reagan did to working class Americans. These are working class types I’m talking about and they tend to be vehemently anti-union, even though our company is largely represented by a collective bargaining agreement.
One guy who I like and care for, have co-driven with for well over 40,000 miles, served this counry as a submariner on both boomers and attack subs, spent more than 2 and a half years submerged in aggregate, just continues to search for a reason to literally HATE Democratic politics.
Why?
There is no way I can convince these people that the Republican Party has hurt them. They are convinced that Liberals are communists, and I am finding more and more they can’t properly define any difference between socialism and communism.
The aforementioned Navy man went so far as to desperately grasp at Michelle Obama and the idea that she literally hates white people because (he says) a college paper she supposedly wrote declares herself as such, as if that alone was justification to hate liberalism. When I told him that Obama was the first virtually completely scandal free presidency in 50 years, he would have none of it.
I’m beginning to think it is simply angst. Frustration that their own political ideology constantly fails to put forward ANY program or political philosophy that would actually improve their lives.
I’ve said this to many, and perhaps it bears repeating, because it is, at the end, all of what we fight for;
The Republican party has, for at least the length of my lifetime , been consistent in delivering rules, regulations and legislation that serves people who need the LEAST SERVICE.
An has adversely affected those that need the most.
Just try and convince the next Trump supporter you come across who makes less than $100,000 a year that Republican economic and political ideology harms them.
You can’t.
Why someone of modest means thinks cutting taxes for people whom they can in no way relate from an economic standpoint is a good thing is completely perplexing. What makes otherwise normal persons to actually think lynching a sitting member of Congress because she had the temerity to question their current favorite son. Why is it that men and women who are advantaged by military health programs just refuse to acknowledge the need of others a similar circumstance?
I wish I had that magic bullet. The ice projectile that could dissolve their concerns that by letting go of their fears of progressive thought, it is possible, just possible, their lives might improve.
I’m happy to say that after 40 years as a smoker, I am completely incapable of holding my breath that long.
= new reply since forum marked as read
I know my parents voted for Nixon but I remember when President Kennedy was shot my mother was as shocked and upset as anyone. I remember when Barry Goldwater appeared on with Jay Leno, Leno tried to goad him into attacking President Clinton. And Goldwater refused to take the bait, said "He's my president, too." My parents felt like Goldwater did. 
Mom took me to see him speak
Parents were both Birchers
Ironically, my dad had half his ass blown off fighting the nazis his beloved pub party has become, said cult which wouldn’t countenance the likes of BG or RR today
The conversion of some 20-30% of our population to right-wing dogma and hate is complex and has taken over 40 years.
My recollection of Republicans in the early 60s is that they were made up almost entirely of the wealthy business owners and the political issue that drove them was taxes. At that time, our tax laws were much more progressive, so rich folks resented paying more. Republican politicians such as Bob Dole regularly railed against taxes and deficit spending on TV. The few Republicans I knew in my hometown in rural TN were nice, regular folks but of higher income levels such as doctors or small businessmen. I don't recall hateful rhetoric except for the systemic racism against blacks common to most all whites. We were never exposed to Hyspanics, homosexuals or foreigners. We thought people from Ohio and Florida were foreigners, LOL.
The first hateful right-wing speech I recall was from Spiro Agnew with his racist campaign in their Southern Strategy, which eventually converted much of the South (including my all Democratic area) to Republican voting. During that era, massive right-wing brainwashing had not taken off, so I think most of that could have been reversed under the right circumstances. However, the 60s brought about so much social upheaval that solidified resentment in many church-goers against progressive change, as well as hippies, rock music, etc. So, at that point, a large fraction of our populace was ripe for brainwashing. And, racism was still there but somewhat more covert.
Then, Reagan came along and had extremely high popular appeal with social conservatives and used all the right words to convert many people's thinking on social spending from good to bad, along with the familiar troupe against taxes and deficits. His time further solidified the Republican mindset in many former Democrats that were religious and social conservatives. Republican strategists such as Lee Atwater clearly saw this opportunity to permanently expand the Republican base and took the advantage. Billionaire eyes were glowing with joy.
They knew their support from this new base was shaky however, and began to do full-time maintenance on it through right-wing talk radio (mainly 70s to present) and more TV exposure from their Reagan-era elected pols. After that, aggressive talk radio characters such as Limbaugh came in to solidify the cult and in the mid-90s, Rupert Murdoch's Fox News came in to occupy much more air time but with video.
As you know, the GOP's history of success is fraught with lying, deception, racism, false use of religion, misogyny, emotional rage, instilling of unjustified fears, xenophobia, sensationalism and constant circulation of numerous conspiracy theories - in other words, appealing to human's most base instincts and our worst primitive attributes. Our populace will always harbor part or all of those characteristics to some extent, and we simply have to evolve out of those bad parts of our natures.
The other primary factors making people vulnerable to GOP dogma is poor or narrow education levels nation-wide and lack of broad social exposure in rural areas. Not much we can do about the rural limitations, but we sure as hell can work to improve our weak level of critical thinking skills by re-emphasizing the need for studies in science, math, and the arts. We also desperately need to bolster interest in American government, civics and world history. If we allow our public education system to be driven only by the needs of corporate America, we're screwed.
Enough of my rant - as you can seem I'm just as frustrated as you! 
