To them he was an arrogant individualist, an aloof Jew and bourgeoisie sympathiser, whom they had nothing in common with. Trotsky did nothing to change this perception; he was a brilliant theorist with little interest in paperwork, so much so that he saw the party's transition towards a bureaucracy as anti-revolutionary. This led him to accuse supporters of Stalin as being "worms who crawl from the upturned soil of the manured revolution." This language did not endear him to the vast majority of the party, which had been bureaucratic since 1917. Trotsky's lack of political tact and his arrogance towards the party membership left him with no base of support in the party.
Even ignoring the main body of the party, Trotsky could still have gained power if he skilfully forged alliances within the Politburo. Again his individualism led him into trouble. His constant bickering with Kamenev and Zinoviev, culminating in his pamphlet "Lessons of October-, led to Kamenev publishing his own pamphlet entitled "Lenin or Trotsky", detailing the contrast between the two. Since Lenin was so revered, any deviation from Leninism was almost treasonous. Furthermore the pamphlet highlighted that Trotsky was an ex-Menshevik who joined the Bolsheviks only when it was clear that they would be the winning side. Trotsky was so despised that Zinoviev, Kamenev and Stalin formed a triumvirate solely to keep him from power. Having alienated himself from both the masses of the party and the Politburo, Trotsky's only hope lay in disclosing Lenin's Testament. The testament condemned all three of the triumvirate and brutally dismissed Stalin to such an extent that had the document been released, Stalin's chance of succession would have been ruined. Although the testament was slightly critical of Trotsky, it clearly showed that he was Lenin choice as successor. This highlights Trotsky's fundamental flaws, his naiveté and his lack of ruthlessness.