Stephen Skowronek in the Washington Post says that disrupters usually fail both substantially and politically. They are swept out of office and their successors make the changes. Jimmy Carter followed by Ronald Reagan is the most recent example. If his thesis is true, Trump and the Republican will be swept out leaving the Democrats to make the changes. It is way too early to confidently predict this, but things are leaning that way.
Trump’s campaign resonated for a reason. Debates framed during the Reagan Revolution have worn thin. Americans are growing impatient with the received terms of legitimate national government. But Trump appears to be struggling with the reset. In full view of the early fumbling, we should look more closely at the historical pattern of presidency-led political reconstructions.
………..
Like Carter and Adams, Trump reached the presidency as a loner. All three found themselves in — but not part of — a long-dominant coalition. Each marginalized party orthodoxy and made their case instead based on some inimitable, personal capacity to put things right.
When the old order loses political purchase, the attractions of the loner-as-leader shine brightly. But such presidents have never been able to reorder national affairs. Once in office, they appear incompetent and in over their heads. Their disruptions characteristically drive the implosion. Reconstruction follows, but under other auspices.
Read the whole thing.