Since the civil-rights days of the mid 1960s, William, the GOP's ace in the hole has always been racist dog whistling, until it became outright Trumpism--overt racism.

For many years there were good but gullible folks within the Republican Party that bought the smokescreen gobbledygook mantra of fiscal responsibility, lower taxes, small government and trickle down economics

It is well that many of these good guys have left the GOP and battle Trumpism, but, alas, most still cling to their quaint and discredited faux, conservative ideologies.