Story highlights Mark Bauerlein: Trump's deal with Democrats reminds GOP that party loyalty doesn't matter

Trump concluded he owed GOP nothing after party's legislative failures, scoldings, he says

Mark Bauerlein is a professor of English at Emory University, senior editor of the journal First Things and author of "The Dumbest Generation: How the Digital Age Stupefies Young Americans and Jeopardizes Our Future; Or, Don't Trust Anyone Under 30." The opinions expressed in this commentary are his own.

(CNN) The thought of President Donald Trump hand-in-hand with Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer, smiling over how great the debt deal is going to be, shocks establishment Republicans and people inside the Beltway who've lived with the ideal of party loyalty all their lives. The big news for them isn't the deal itself, but Trump's break with his own allies on the Hill. Does he still not know how things are done?

Mark Bauerlein

But it should have been clear from early in the campaign that a victory for Trump would not spell triumph for the Republicans. The full impact of his ascent meant a scrambling of party machinery. The reality is that party loyalty on the conservative side doesn't much count anymore. That's what the primaries proved.

I remember a young Republican operative telling me in anguished tones before the convention, "But he's not a real conservative!" She didn't realize the terms had changed. Trump represents himself -- not a party and not an ideology. Neither his supporters nor his opponents can measure him against traditional yardsticks. His actions stand on their own.

Dallying with the Democrats won't dismay his voters one bit. The people I've talked to over the months feel a lot more disgust with Paul Ryan and Mitch McConnell than with the minority leaders. To the Trump fan, liberal Democrats do what they do with sure predictability, and they stand together with impressive fealty.

JUST WATCHED GOP official: Trump-Dems deal blindsided GOPers Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH GOP official: Trump-Dems deal blindsided GOPers 04:11

Republican senators and House members, on the other hand, are trimmers and prevaricators, or at least enough of them to scuttle long-awaited legislation. Why should the President show them any deference when they can't even line up their own ranks?

Read More