A simple formula, or what we might call a neat magic trick, allows Republican Party leaders to retain the support of their "base" even as they enact policies that hurt their own voters. Two competing storylines highlight exactly how this is playing out right now.
WORYTH THE READ BUT HERE IT IS, IN SUM:
"In a nutshell: Republicans are very good at inventing enemies. Made-up enemies are safest. That's why, to paraphrase George Orwell, Oceania has always been at war with Eastasia.
Republicans responded to Biden's bill — which is popular with most Americans — by fueling a massive conservative backlash to what they have termed "cancel culture." Fox News spent days decrying the decision of Dr. Seuss Enterprises (a private company) to stop publishing a few lesser-known Dr. Seuss books, which the estate deemed outdated and racist. This fake controversy, and its perceived threat to the American way of life, is a made-up enemy. Yet Republicans and their media spokespersons spun this as a culture war waged by radical leftists on "Green Eggs and Ham" (a book unaffected by the decision of Dr. Seuss Enterprises). Dangerous to American free speech? Hardly. Excellent distraction from the GOP's Covid-19 obstruction? Absolutely.
Another, more predictable example of this strategy is Cruz opposing the $1,400 payments by falsely claiming that undocumented immigrants would also get stimulus payments.
According to Yale history professor Timothy Snyder, Republican leaders' motives are likely deeply cynical. Snyder proposes a concept called "sadopopulism," which refers to politicians who purposefully govern in a way that makes life worse for the bulk their supporters. Snyder presents the strategy in a few easy steps:
Identify an "enemy."
Enact policies that create pain in your own constituents.
Blame the ensuing pain on the "enemies."
Present yourself as the strongman who can fight the enemies.
In a nutshell, you can't have a white grievance party if your constituents aren't grieving. Policy that keeps the rank and file in pain keeps them angry, and perversely that can help you at the ballot box by directing their anger at "made-up enemies" who — so the story goes — are powered by Democrats who are out to ruin (cancel) American culture. The formula creates a brutal political incentive to embrace policies that hurt their own constituents.
Snyder explains that this formula is commonly used by modern-day oligarchs and would-be oligarchs. If you're a would-be oligarch — if you want both wealth and power — you have no incentive to give more real power to the people but every incentive to make it look like you are fighting for them publicly.
