In 2011, Rick Perry opened his presidential campaign by saying that if the Federal Reserve took steps to boost the economy it would be "treasonous" because it might help Obama get reelected, and implied that in Texas they would lynch the Fed chairman for doing that kind of thing
Just thinking about what would happen in a normal political party if its presidential frontrunner said — out loud, on camera — that he's hoping for an economic crash that wouldn't cause him any political inconvenience.
It could be argued that the 2010 election's influx of TEA Party candidates and others who thought McCarthyism returning would be a great thing were a strong indication that the Rs were well on their way already to no longer being a normal party.
