It isn't that I think that there was some Republican party golden age pre-Newt. Policy aside, the Reagan administration was a corrupt shit show (and people actually did get convicted! almost seems quaint now) and before that some guy named Nixon. But Newt was a buffoon. A completely ridiculous human being who was treated like some elder statesman political messiah the instant he took control of the House in 1995. Trump before Trump, though with a history PhD* that impressed our easily impressed press. His successor was Denny Hastert. Denny Hastert was Speaker until after the 2006 elections! You might remember what happened to him after that. The Bush administration was filled with absolute clowns including, of course, Bush. The press treated them all as sages, too, but they were all ridiculous. How could The Teens, or any normal people not infected by DC brain virus, not think they were absurd? And not just "all old people are absurd" as The Teens can see things, but these particular people? The Teens like some old people!
*wikipedia tells me the title of his Phd was "Belgian Education Policy in the Congo 1945–1960." Oh boy.
