Conservative political victories are always followed by economic misery for the conservative base, because the senior partners in the conservative coalition are the bosses who get richer by making workers poorer. Conservative rulers try to offset this with spectacular acts of cruelty against disfavored minorities, but this tactic only carries so far. Eventually, the electorate notices that despite terrorizing migrants and trans people, diesel is now $10/gallon and the guy responsible is now $1.4b richer than he was before the election.

Not sure you could summarize the past/present/future of politics and elections any better than that. I think there are three major factors that contribute to the cycle: 1) greed (obviously); 2) human beings like to follow. I mean, look at all these “alpha males” who, by definition, are betas as they keep looking to others for how to be “alpha;” and 3) selfishness, which sounds obvious, but it contributes to a lot more than just “Gimmie Gimmie Gimmie.” When we let our selfish ego take over, it’s easy to look at things as a zero-sum game—if someone else is winning, you must be losing. This leads to “othering” and then demonizing other groups of people to ensure you and yours don’t fall behind. I have more to say about how pacifism and rising tides are principles to follow to prevent you from falling into the trap of those instincts, but I’m still at a loss for how to bring folks on the dark side into the light.