In 1968, a certain experimenter -- let's call him Dr. Nixonstein -- began his efforts toward building a bigger and better Republican Party.
Nixonstein had early success in his project, which came to be known as the Southern Strategy after the main target for exponential growth, as he cobbled together a new party from what, at the time, seemed to be promising components.
And for the shocking play-by-play from Bumf***, Wisconsin, we take you to BuzzFeed News correspondent McKay Coppins:
ELKHORN, Wisconsin — In a jarring illustration of the chaos now engulfing the Republican Party, supporters of Donald Trump clashed bitterly with GOP leaders at a rally here Saturday — booing elected officials, heckling Paul Ryan, and angrily demanding greater establishment support for their beleaguered presidential nominee.
The confrontations took place at Fall Fest, an annual party fundraising event held in Ryan’s Wisconsin congressional district. Trump had been scheduled to appear at the event in a show of GOP unity, but Ryan abruptly disinvited him Friday night after the Washington Post published a leaked 11-year-old video of the businessman lewdly bragging about groping women. Over the next 24 hours, a parade of high-profile Republicans condemned Trump, and several retracted their endorsements altogether, calling on the candidate to drop out of the race.
As the program proceeded Saturday afternoon with politicians giving pro forma pep talks about the importance of voting in November, the audience in attendance — split between mainstream Republicans and rowdy Trump fans — shouted at the stage, and at each other.
Just as Paul Ryan finished speaking in Elkhorn... pic.twitter.com/6HtAqf3bGQ— McKay Coppins (@mckaycoppins) October 9, 2016
OH, MY. We return you now to Bumf***, Wisconsin, for this breaking-news update and McKay Coppins:
When, early in the event’s program, Wisconsin Attorney General Brad Schimel tried to address the recently leaked video that has sent Trump’s campaign into a tailspin, the crowd erupted in angry protest.
“Get over it!” one heckler yelled.
“Trump! Trump! Trump!” others chanted.
Appearing taken aback by the reaction, Schimel made a brief nod toward support for the nominee — “Donald Trump will appoint judges that will defend our Constitution” — and then quickly changed the subject.
Other elected officials became more combative with the audience. When Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner talked about how voters had been coming to the Fall Fest for years to support Ryan and other local Republicans, hecklers shouted, “Not anymore!” and, “I’m for Donald Trump!”
“Why don’t you listen to what I have to say instead of interrupting me?” Sensenbrenner snapped. Soon, the 73-year-old congressman was in a shouting match with the Trump supporters in the crowd. “Listen to me, please,” he kept repeating, before ordering the audience to “clean up your act."
By the time it was Ryan’s turn to speak, the mood had grown indisputably hostile. He took the stage to scattered boos, and shouts of, “What about Donald Trump?” and, “Shame on you!”
“Look, let me just start out by saying: There’s a bit of an elephant in the room,” Ryan told the crowd. “And it’s a troubling situation … but that is not what we are here to talk about today. You know what we do here at Fall Fest? We talk about our ideas, we talk about our solutions, we talk about our conservative principles.”
Trump supporters greeted the message with a chorus of boos and abuse.
“Trump for president!”
“Mention Trump!”
“You turned your back on him!”
NOTE: Extremely NSFW. That's why the Donald is in such a jam
Indeed. Sounds like a hell of a reality-TV series, doesn't it?
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