Mark Steyn gives George Bush a few well deserved whacks

Mark supported Bush, but he, like me, has become disenchanted with him.

But I have to say Bush's remark on Trump shows an almost pathological lack of self-awareness. [Bush pondered that he might be the last Republican President in American history] If 43 is indeed "the last Republican president", it will be not because of Trump but because of the conditions that enabled Trump - that's to say, the state of Bush-era Republicanism by the time of 2015.

In parliamentary systems, parties that outlive any useful purpose die either very quickly (Italy) or rather slower (Britain). But the United States is unique in having a frozen two-party system for a century and a half - until 2016. To take Bush's statement as correct, that year the GOP base chose to elect an independent - and that's on Dubya, Jeb, Mitt, McCain, Ryan and the rest and what they did to their own party. A certain amount of self-reflective circumspection might be appropriate.

The Republican elected officials prepared the party for burial, having abandoned the middle class in every way but rhetoric.  They were rich, they were powerful, and they were enthralled to the corporate elite who fell over each other to see who could outsource jobs to Asia, Mexico or Central America faster.

They invaded the Middle East, won the war but lost the peace because they totally misunderstood the culture and the religion of the region. 

They misunderstood the world and they misunderstood the country.  That's what led to Donald Trump.