He is disordered. I am not sure the party will recover.
He is stupid; has ADHD and has lived well off corruption his whole life.
THAT is what is wrong with him. He got into the graft game because he was useful; he was expendable from the standpoint of contractors but well-connected through family to Tammany.
He did it well and made it into a quasi-legitimate business. Didn't hurt him that as a young man he was quite attractive; cleaned up well in a suit. Who would have suspected that the chiseled blond Adonis in the Ralph Loren tailored suit was nothing but a Tammany bagman?
Success feeds on itself; and he got a chance to own a fraction of casinos - with the use of his name, nice gig if you can do it. And of course a CASINO will be the kind of business that someone of low-intelligence will be drawn to.
From there...reality television. Again...something that dull-normals like himself would understand. I wonder if Donnie has read a book in his life? ONE BOOK? Don't give me "his" book. I'll bet he never read it, much less edited it, MUCH less wrote it. Ghostwritten, all the way. He hires people to swamp out his gold potty; and he hires people to write books under his name. Now, to write Position Papers.
Success feeds on itself, but the other tendency is for a stupid man's reach to exceed his grasp. And that is why we are where we are.