For those of us who wallow in politics, this is hardly a revelation - we deal day in and day out with the fact that the Republican Party is more of a criminal syndicate than a political organization with any sort of ideas. It exists to serve its leaders and financiers alone, and actively wages war on the United States of America from within its own institutions in order to benefit a tiny minority of the population. But what about the "average" Republican - the person who is neither a white-collar criminal nor especially bigoted, but for some reason keeps voting for people who are both?
In our naivete, many liberals and moderates insist that rank-in-file Republican voters are just misguided - that they have the same motives as any decent people, but are led astray to the wrong conclusions by family members, communities, or regional prejudices. We scramble desperately to look for plausible reasons why a person with the remotest semblance of decency and responsibility could be completely blind to the daily drumbeat of criminality, lies, and hate that is the only output of Republican politics. But it's a fool's errand, because as I've written about before, Republican voters are not misguided; they are not honest, hardworking people who've misjudged the situation; they are not patriotic Americans led astray by charismatic (ha!) leaders. They are just degenerate people whose corruption is commensurate to their means.
They vote Republican for one reason, and one reason only: Because Republicans bribe them in every single election. Every...single...time. To my knowledge, there has not been an election in decades in which a Republican did not promise tax cuts, even where there was zero rational justification for them. They promise tax cuts in times of plenty as a "reward" for good work, and promise tax cuts in lean times as a senseless "economic stimulus" that goes against every reality of economics. They promise tax cuts in times of peace - short-lived though such times are whenever Republicans have any say in the matter - and tax cuts in times of war, which they are ever-eager to start. And they may have believed their own bullshit about tax cuts being economically beneficial back in the Reagan administration, but that fantasy has evaporated like a fart in the wind: They have no such illusions. They just want the money NOW, and they don't care how they get it or what the consequences are.
So they demand bribes, and their leaders deliver them. Since the rich finance Republican campaigns, they get the biggest share of the bribes, but the middle-class gets some too - and the Republican middle-class doesn't care that every dollar they receive in tax cuts comes with a bill for $5 in reduced services, collapsing infrastructure, and lost economic opportunity. They just don't give a shit. Because they're not demanding a benefit - they don't care whether it's a net benefit or not - all they're demanding is the pleasure of receiving a wad of cash, even if they have to fork over ten times as much in hidden value. These are the people who vote Republican: The lowest, most degenerate among the corrupt, who would sell the oxygen in their lungs for a whiff of money.
Someone should tell these real-life orcs that selling their votes is illegal, immoral, and un-American, especially the next time they trot out some bullshit about "voter fraud" because uppity minorities are daring to register. And if they deny it, go ahead and dare them to talk about the last time they voted for someone who wasn't promising them a tax cut. Dare them to name the last person their party even nominated who wasn't promising to push for tax cuts. If anyone tried to outbid the GOP, Republican voters would just take both bribes and still vote for the greater of two evils out of sheer spite for mankind. They want the money - ALL OF IT. They will liquidate this nation to get it, and die happy watching their own grand-children starve.