W didn't even really go anywhere, and they were able to essentially un-person him.

They rebranded as teabaggers, did a lot of colonial drag parties, and then later, donnie acted like support for invading Iraq was something that started and ended with W, and what's crazy is that so many teabaggers, who for a while there pretended to have never even heard of these Republicans and this W guy, suddenly were Republicans again.

They are reprogrammable meat bags.

Also I'm quite dubious of someone that calls themselves an "independent". Most of them seem to be one of the following:

1. Republicans that don't want to admit that they are Republicans in mixed company. There were so many of these right after W; I expect we'll see a lot again after donnie exits.
2. Low-info windsocks that just basically want to be on the "winning team" and will just vote for who they think will win.
3. Smug edgelords or concern trolls that like to act like politicians, most especially Democrats, need to do headstands for them to "win their vote". Think of that Ken Bone guy with the red shirt. The kind of person that says they "don't really know Kamala".