It's worth examining the processes by which Republicans assembled "the base" and how different that is from the assembly of the Democratic base.
The first step was with the Moral Majority, whose entire thing was identity: "We're the good guys, they're the bad guys."
Meanwhile Democrats have actual interest groups, civil rights, social justice, DEI...all based on policy.
So a base goes from "We're the good guys, they're the bad guys" to "Whatever we do is beyond question better than whatever they do."
Adultery? God forgives us! Self-dealing? They do worse! Child molesters are in our leadership? A few bad apples (but a single child molester among t hem is proof they are worse!)
So a base whose entire motivation is how superior they are to everyone they dislike is a wildly different thing from a base that is attempting to enact policies to address their problems.
And when you're necessarily better, transgressing with impunity is proof that they're worse....because we get away with, or get pardoned, for what they need to be harshly punished for.
It's worth examining the processes by which Republicans assembled "the base" and how different that is from the assembly of the Democratic base.
The first step was with the Moral Majority, whose entire thing was identity: "We're the good guys, they're the bad guys."
Meanwhile Democrats have actual interest groups, civil rights, social justice, DEI...all based on policy.
So a base goes from "We're the good guys, they're the bad guys" to "Whatever we do is beyond question better than whatever they do."
Adultery? God forgives us! Self-dealing? They do worse! Child molesters are in our leadership? A few bad apples (but a single child molester among t hem is proof they are worse!)
So a base whose entire motivation is how superior they are to everyone they dislike is a wildly different thing from a base that is attempting to enact policies to address their problems.
And when you're necessarily better, transgressing with impunity is proof that they're worse....because we get away with, or get pardoned, for what they need to be harshly punished for.