All projection, all the time
By 
Friend of the Blog Rick Perlstein on the recent revelations about toxic New Hampshire publisher/kingmaker William Loeb:
I mean, these people! Note his go-to move for destorying reputations was to impute sexual impropriety: Rockefeller for divorcing his wife and marrying a younger woman; Phil Crane for supposedly being into orgies. (Related: Muskie for not being able to "control" his wife.") pic.twitter.com/KbqZcRB53o— Rick Perlstein (@rickperlstein) May 1, 2022
Loeb on “The Dope in the White House” (1977): “President Carter, by his permissive advocacy of removing the penalties for possession of small amounts of marijuana, has lined himself directly on the side of the drug addicts.”— Rick Perlstein (@rickperlstein) May 1, 2022
A tantalizing 1979 letter from Reagan to Loeb: “Your story about young Bush is very interesting and dovetails with a few other things we’ve heard from that direction.” (This was when W was 23.)— Rick Perlstein (@rickperlstein) May 1, 2022
From RWR to Loeb defending opposition to the Cali initiative banning gay teachers: "I am disgusted with the Gay Rights Movement. It isn’t a movement leading to civil rights: Thy are simply demanding acceptance of their way of life, and I am opposed to this.”— Rick Perlstein (@rickperlstein) May 1, 2022
Trump is much more symptom than cause.