By Perry Bacon Jr. of FiveThirtyEight
George H. W. Bush was a hugely influential figure in the Republican Party: chairman of the Republican National Committee, vice president, president and father of another GOP president.
But the GOP has changed dramatically since it nominated Bush for the presidency in 1988 — a fact reflected in the ex-president’s strained relationship with the GOP’s new standard-bearer, President Trump.
Bush’s death is another moment to highlight what my colleague Clare Malone described in the summer of 2016 as “The End Of A Republican Party.” Let’s run through some of the big shifts that have occurred within the GOP:
