"Don't be like George Bush I"

In his Morning Rant in the Ace of Spades blog, Oregon Muse writes,

During Monday's rant, I wondered whether Trump will have any 'coattails' in November that will help other Republicans, senators and representatives, get elected.
But the downticket Repubs do not have to sit passively by and wait for it to happen. There is something they can do. They can reach out and grab onto the coattails. They can climb aboard the Trump train.

They can be like Trump.

I don't think it's that difficult. They can put America first. They can eschew the globalist agenda that has somehow managed to become the default position ever since the end of WWII. They can support Trump's trade deals. He may even campaign in your district for you if you support him.

So be like Trump. Don't be like George Bush I.

Why not? What was wrong with George Bush I?

When we voted for George Bush I, we thought we were getting a third term of Reagan. Indeed, that is how he campaigned. We did not want to remember that he once dismissed Reagan's economic policies, you know, the ones that brought prosperity to America in the 80s after the stagflation of the Carter years, as "voodoo economics." We thought, maybe he learned his lesson.

Nope.

Because as soon as he was elected, he started babbling about "a thousand points of light" and "a kinder, gentler America", which was his way of extending his middle finger toward the man who had set him up to win the presidential election.

Here's an example of what that looked like:

Science fiction author Jerry Pournelle had a quiet network of conservative contacts inside the Reagan White House, promoting things like ballistic missile defense.

He recalls what happened in the one week following the inauguration of Poppy Bush in January of 1989 -- the sweeping purge. Every single one of Pournelle's conservative contacts were *gone*, replaced by what he terms "the country club set".

It takes a certain kind of hubris to look at what Reagan built and say "screw that, let's do something else."

Of course, Poppy Bush paid for his hubris: he was unelected just as soon as it was possible to unelect him, but by then the damage had been done: his utter fecklessness paved the way for the Arkansas Grifter and her horndog husband.

So, don't be like Poppy Bush. Look at Trump. See how he wins. And go and do thou likewise.

(h/t moron commenter torquewrench for the Pournelle story)