The information about Herschel Walker, the U.S. Senate candidate from Georgia, follows a miserable however acquainted monitor. A Republican politician is enmeshed in a scandal that might sink any candidate a long time in the past. However as a substitute of taking their lumps or withdrawing, the GOP candidate refuses to apologize for or, in some instances, even acknowledge the incident. Republican donors and pundits double down on their help, as does the GOP voters. It’s a sample that performed out the identical manner after Donald Trump’s Entry Hollywood revelation, and Brett Kavanaugh’s sexual assault allegations.
Republicans have adopted the Nietzschean ethic of “the need to energy,” even when it means embracing hypocrisy. Because the pundit Dana Loesch just lately stated, “I don’t care if Herschel Walker paid to abort endangered child eagles … I would like management of the Senate.” That’s refreshingly trustworthy, at the very least.
A lot might be stated right here about Republican sexual politics and abortion ethics. In spite of everything, if conservatives consider abortion is homicide, a vote for Walker is a vote for a misleading assassin. If Republicans consider that “household values” are the important thing to a wholesome society, how do they sq. supporting a serial philanderer, deadbeat dad, and alleged home abuser over a well-respected pastor? The reply is that Republican tradition wars aren’t about fetal life or household values, however the protection of patriarchy and theocracy.
However the extra attention-grabbing query is why Republicans have sunk to this amoral nadir. The solutions are advanced: the radicalization of the GOP base and its aspiring politicians by Fox Information and right-wing social media; generalized standing anxiousness amongst teams aligned with the Republicans; unaccountable and secretive far-right donors untethered to social opprobrium; and worldwide ethnonationalist, theocratic actions rowing in the identical path.
Republicans have determined that short-term energy is extra essential than long-term integrity.
However why now?
The Strom Thurmonds and Pat Buchanans have at all times been with us. Racist, sexist, and homophobic violence are endemic, and Fox Information has been in operation for many years. Social media algorithms inflame passions however inflame them extra on the suitable. Why?
The quick reply is that conservatives know that they’re dropping the tradition wars. In a traditional democratic battle of concepts, quotidian issues like taxation and regulation are debated advert nauseum. Either side endures defeats and celebrates victories. Dropping is non permanent; the battle misplaced right this moment may be gained tomorrow.
How essential is it for Republicans to take Congress subsequent month? In all probability, the Home will stay carefully divided, and the Senate as nicely. Biden will nonetheless be president. A political social gathering assured in its future wouldn’t sacrifice its long-term fame for one Senate seat.
However fashionable Republicans lack this confidence. Some dubbed the 2016 presidential contest the “Flight 93 election,” arguing that crashing the metaphorical airplane was a greater various than seeing Hillary Clinton inaugurated. Republicans nonetheless act as if their survival is imperiled if Democrats, at greatest, rack up majoritarian coverage wins similar to COVID-19 reduction or extra photo voltaic panels. Conversely, it was Republicans who staged a violent coup and are nonetheless fomenting a legalistic overthrow of democratic balloting to safe everlasting minority rule.
Their desperation is loathsome however comprehensible. The long-term prognosis for right this moment’s GOP coalition is bleak. The oldest Millennials are over 40 and supported Biden by a whopping 20 factors. Republicans had hoped that Gen Z would possibly show extra fertile floor, however voters 26 and below backed Biden by an analogous margin. However it will get worse for conservatives: Most Millennials and Gen Zers backed Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren over Hillary Clinton and Joe Biden within the 2016 and 2020 Democratic primaries. Biden’s polling weaknesses are pushed primarily by younger voters aggravated that he isn’t sufficiently progressive, though scholar mortgage debt reduction and hashish reform could assist. The concept voters grow to be conservative with age is a fantasy. Millennials who’ve spent 20 years voting on the left aspect of Democratic primaries aren’t about to shift exhausting proper.
White evangelical church buildings—the mainstay of the Republican base—are quickly declining in membership, particularly among the many younger. That’s as a result of youthful Individuals are higher educated than earlier generations, and better schooling ranges correlate with liberal voting preferences. And whereas the Republican Occasion has made features with minority voters, its yawning deficits amongst nonwhite voters stay vital in a rustic that’s not getting any whiter.
Conservatives are usually not simply declining in uncooked numbers but in addition in financial energy: How lengthy can the Republican Occasion keep the fiction that it constitutes the “makers” and liberals symbolize the“takers” when Trump-voting counties solely symbolize 30 % of the GDP?
Structural benefits within the Senate, the Electoral Faculty, and gerrymandered Home and legislative districts will hold the GOP aggressive. Its stolen stranglehold on the Supreme Court docket will degrade liberal democracy and social security nets.
However how lengthy will an ascendant progressive majority tolerate this? Not perpetually, and conservatives comprehend it, which explains why they’re mortgaging their future to help Herschel Walker. Republican tradition warriors stroll a bleak path, in order that they indulge hypocrisy and undermine democracy earlier than the favored will rolls again their energy.