[This is a continuation of my “Political Lessons From President George W. Bush” series, in which I discuss some political lessons Republicans could learn from the second term of President George W. Bush. Briefly, I believe that it is important for a Republican president to avoid the second-term political collapse that happened to President Bush and that, to do so, a Republican president, e.g., Donald Trump, needs to follow a bifurcated strategy to keep his polling support up among both the GOP party base and with independents. You can read Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, and Part 4, here and here and here and here, respectively.]
One thing that is dramatically different between the second Trump term and the second Bush term is the state of the opposition party. Despite both President Bush and President Trump winning second terms by similar popular margins, with…