https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2023/04 ... ves-losing
Republicans’ math problem is only getting worse. They have a base that is addicted to a sweet sugar rush of what can only be described as “authoritarianism lite,” but that brand of politics—think Trumpism meets Orbánism, the far-right populism of Hungarian prime minister Viktor Orbán—is like cyanide to the more normal swing-ish voters whom Republicans actually need to win elections. Last week Republicans committed a mélange of unforced errors, the reverberations of which will likely haunt them in 2024 and maybe beyond. While the base was delighted by these debacles, it’s hard to see how they encourage anyone who doesn’t identify as ultra MAGA.
To sum it all up quickly, in the last week, Tennessee state Republicans expelled two legislators for being involved in a gun control protest, a Trump-appointed judge in Texas halted the Food and Drug Administration’s approval of a leading abortion medication, and Republicans rushed to Donald Trump’s defense at his arrest and arraignment. All of these events were cases of the GOP’s leadership being unable or unwilling to control the basest aspects of the party. In Tennessee we saw racism, in Texas we saw a zealot seemingly attempting to make the law reflect his own religious theories, and in New York we saw the pure lawlessness that is a key element of Trumpism.
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Republicans have run into a ditch. Their base gets high off displays of authoritarianism and religious zealotry, so they’ve taken up an agenda that actively targets fellow Americans, inflicting real harm on communities with race-baiting tactics and onerous health restrictions. And in doing so they continue to alienate the voters they desperately need to win elections in purple states. How Republicans got here is no mystery; Trump touched the third rail of the Republican base, the people who were so beyond the pale that previous candidates had at least pretended to disavow them. I’m talking about the Richard Spencer types, the racists, the antisemites. After touching this rail, and narrowly eking out a win in 2016, Republicans found themselves dependent on that base for turnout. Now they have gone so far down this road that they find themselves staring down an intractable death ray with crushing defeat—unless, that is, they change the rules to keep minority rule.
