The current Republican party is an outgrowth of Newt Gingrich (dog eat dog politics) + “Closing of the American Mind (1987, Bloom), plus Rush Limbaugh 1993+ Pat Robertson (“New World Order”).
They provided the soil that Marjorie Taylor Greene, Matt Gaetz, Hawley, Boebert, Cawthorn, etc. could grow in.
They’d not have been possible in any other time in history.