One hallmark of a dying or dead political movement is that they use whatever levers of power that they still control to retain power, simply because they have failed to sway a majority of people to their movement. Scott Lemieux touches on that briefly at the end of the excerpt in the post below, in talking about "the decades-long control of a political faction that has given up even trying to appeal to the majority of the American people." The tactics can range from simply lying about your positions, aided by the megaphone of well-funded, aligned media, to gerrymandering a Congressional district to skew the vote to your benefit and voter suppression.
The Republican / Trumpist party's most recent, ambitious undermining of the majority's wishes (on affordable health care, women's reproductive rights, climate change, etc.) is their cynical and destructive rush to give sociopathic demagogue and con man Donald "COVID Donnie" Trump a third right-wing Justice on the Supreme Court just weeks before the November elections, which he is increasingly in danger of losing, likely taking his Senate majority down with him. Packing the Federal courts with right-wing, anti-majoritarian judges has been a long-term project of the likes of sinister corporatist "Moscow Mitch" McConnell and his lying ally Lindsey "Use My Words Against Me" Graham. They know demographics and expanded public education bode ill for their right-wing movement, and no amount of wedge issues, culture war, trickle down economics or other snake oils they've been selling is likely to work as well in the future. They, along with their Republican colleagues, have, as Lemieux said, "given up even trying to appeal to the majority" of Americans.
So, it's grab the power and the court seats when you can, fight the tide of history in the meantime, and hope that enough of your supporters don't awaken to the fact that you've been fleecing them and lying to them all these years. It's worked so far, but with ever diminishing returns.
