From top to bottom, at all levels of government, the Republican Party is on a tear to epitomize the timeless truth of 19th-century Britain’s Lord Acton: “Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.”
Signs of backlash are building, however. Witness Democrats’ takeover of the Wisconsin Supreme Court last week, and its capture of Michigan’s entire government last fall — victories in two heartland states that Democrats had long feared were slipping away from them. By public demand, the Republican-controlled Tennessee House has had to reseat the two Black Democratic representatives it expelled recently for egging on a protest in support of gun control after a shooter killed six at a Nashville school.
For a Republican Party that didn’t even bother to write an actual platform in 2020, Americans can clearly see a de facto one: Its planks are antiabortion extremism, pro-gun absolutism, anti-LGBTQ activism, book banning, vote suppression and election denialism.
Most Republican leaders aren’t stupid; they recognize their political peril in swing states and national elections, if only privately. Pollsters and consultants are warning them. As Sarah Longwell, who conducts focus groups of Republican voters, told Politico, “The gap between what base voters demand … and what swing voters are up for has gotten very wide.”
Which suggests just one explanation for Republicans’ not only staying the course, but also doubling down on issues unpopular with just about everyone other than their base: They have a death wish.