More to the point, Perry is a victim of Trumpism.

By any measure of the conservative agenda—particularly low taxes, light regulation, and strong national defense—Perry was a solid candidate, and as governor of Texas, he has hardly spent his career sequestered inside the DC Beltway. Perhaps in the eyes of the single-issue anti-immigration fanatics, who credulously believe that Donald Trump is really going to deport 11 million people and build a giant wall across the whole border, anything less than these extravagant promises doesn’t impress them. But not all of Trump’s support comes from these single-issue voters, and Perry has certainly managed to handle the immigration issue well enough to satisfy voters in a very right-leaning border state.

But the problem is that Rick Perry has spent the years since his last presidential campaign establishing himself as a thoughtful conservative. He tried to set himself up for this run by giving interesting speeches with a fresh message on serious issues like poverty and national security. But in the year when the Trumpenproles deride people who think, he was a man out of step with the times. Perry was the guy who had studied and mastered the details of policy, in a year when it’s becoming a running joke that the front-runner offers no policy details whatsoever.

In short, Rick Perry was the thoughtful adult—down to the horn-rimmed glasses—in the year when a whole section of the conservative “base” decided what it wanted was a loud, thrashing temper tantrum.