"predominantly white, male, Christian, and American. Yes, I’m well aware that it’s not quite as narrow as that,"

Actually it is even more narrow than that. You need to prefix that description with the word 'wealthy'. Conservative don't give a rat's ass about poor white male Americans. They regard them as losers to be influenced and exploited. The only time Conservatives have any regard for the poor is when election time comes around and they need to spout populist rhetoric to gain votes.

I also fear you may have missed trick WRT the military departing Afghanistan and leaving so much equipment behind. The military, by their nature, are conservative thinkers (you said it yourself) and for them it is more important to make the Democrats look bad than save America's reputation. So although they made sure to destroy anything that could pose a future threat (such as attack helicopters) they left just enough small arms weapons for the Taliban to be seen parading around Kabul with them for the press to film and show on US TV news streams. A big embarrassment for the Democrats that the Republicans can crow about for months to come.

To be even more cynical, you could posit that the items left behind were sales samples, something for the Taliban and other armies in the region to test out before buying in huge quantities from US suppliers (via third party channels naturally). It would even encourage the Saudis to invest in more US manufactured countermeasures.

As for having a genius (or at least a very high IQ) leader, you have to remember what Douglas Adams once said of leadership "it is a well-known fact that those people who must want to rule people are, ipso facto, those least suited to do it." I suspect that anyone with a high IQ will have worked out that being President is possibly the worst thing they could do, if only for their own sanity.