I think it is more than that. It was an "up yours" to global events and they blamed politicians for it. Just look at the record...
- Supporting Bush over the Middle East, no matter what, only to experience a generational marathon instead of the quick and simple conclusion they were promised (and ignorantly imagined) was like a betrayal of their faith. In the mean time, Obama promised to get the troops out (in accordance to Bush's already set timeline), leaving McCain to play the opposite GOP game about not setting timelines (despite every troop in the Middle east knowing Bush's expressed timeline). And on top of this, the GOP decided to answer Obama's status as a black man with Sarah Palin (a complete idiot). The Vietnam Veteran lost to a social worker.
- The absence of jobs, lay offs, and home foreclosures, while Bush/Obama moved to bail out banks and car industry during the Great Recession, proved that the GOP's theory of Trickle-Down Economics was a joke in which everybody but the wealthy had been victims since the 1980s. Economically, Conservatives lost their theory.
- The GOP and Fox News raving about birth certificates and Islam to deligitimize Obama's win left Conservatives supporting complete absurdity and foolishness.
- Romney losing to Obama in 2012, during the period of the 1% realization in America and global uprisings (to include the Arab Spring's protests for socioeconomic dignity and democracy), just reinforced in Conservatives the idea that they are on the wrong side of history.
- Coal miners hated Obama because of Global Warming and the idea of renewable energy and growing technology. Despite not being able to make coal as relevant as it was decades ago, or helping to clean up the drugged out and alcoholic miner towns as he promised,
they still unexplainably love Trump.
Etcetera. In the end, Conservatives have taken an emotional beating and they had been coaxed into blaming all the wrong things for eight years by the very people they should have blamed. They actually chose to laugh at McCain's military experience because a man who has never served anything but himself said so. They betrayed their Christian morality and defended Trump's expressed attitude about adultery and sexual inappropriateness. Christians, fathers, and mothers still cheered for Trump. It didn't phase them at all when white supremacists and extremists began showing up at the rallies to start chanting the moronic slogans with them and passing red hats out to each other. Therefore, aside from losing their economic theory of Trickle-Down nonsense, they also gave up the social Conservative aspect of their belief system. They knew Trump was a wealthy, silver-spooned elite, yet still embraced him as one of their own simply because he harnessed that hate. Conservatives define themselves now as mostly just hating "Libruls."
And now, with his "first 100 days" being the worst on historical record by far, he has proved to be completely absent of an agenda. Despite flipping on every campaign slogan, they still support him. "Lock Her Up" turned into nothing as Trump immediately shrugged and declared that he was no longer interested after he was elected. China went from being a currency manipulator to not being a currency manipulator anymore. NATO went from being obsolete to not being obsolete anymore. His great promise to repeal ObamaCare came down to relying on the GOP to have figured something out beyond the mindless creation of hate for it. Even the long-held Conservative conviction that the country must have an impractical and economically ridiculous southern border wall was reduced to Mexico paying for it...and then came an applauded massive tax-cut plan. Therefore, they don't even care what Trump accomplishes. They expect nothing. They only want him to be that middle finger to the world as he insults national leaders, pokes fun at Democrats/Liberals, mocks NFL kneeling, mocks Black Lives Matter, mocks Global Warming, etc. At this point the man can even mock the military and they give him a thumbs up.
Bitterness at its worst.
