At one time, GOP had a sober grown up faction. W Bush and Mitt Romney were part of that. You might have had policy arguments against that and I could respect that.
9/11 and the GWOT became a patriotism hammer for lazy pols.
Fox and other Conservative media used that hammer against all dems
Citizens United gave the plutocrats way too much power
The digital economy gave plutocrats way too much money
Putin got himself a bunch of influence agents by giving the NRA, etc. a lot of money
The NRA pushed an extreme agenda and had to keep pushing that to avoid being called squishes by more extreme elements.
The confluence of all the above put Trump, a super clown who appealed to the wrestling and meat head PED snakeoil crowd as the head of the GOP when many decent alternates existed (although not/not Ted MF Cruz). Trump was dangerously inept. Could not identify the nuclear triad. Maybe it was best he could not
Trump followed the torch-lit mob and would not correct the mob's excesses. He was way too into the TV spectacle.
I still think Hillary Clinton was and is a terrible candidate and I bet Obama didn't trust her as far as he could toss her. I won't vote for ANY GOP candidate who fails to repudiate Trump. That goes all the way down to dog catcher.
I am reevaluating a lot of my previous world views. I still believe in collective security, free trade and the rule of law. I can see clearly how the post-2015 GOP doesn't. They only believe in power for themselves and their plutocrat friends like Putin and the Shaykhs.