quasi political rambling
Currently thinking that Trump was a reaction to Obama and the current crop of vile assholes are reaction to Trump. Say what you will about Barry, he’s a fantastic speaker and I feel like right wingers wanted their own rock star (biased by years of shock jock tactics; Reagan or Dubya would’ve been too subtle). So now Abbott, DeSantis et al are obliged to try to grab attention in an atmosphere shaped social media and Trump getting away with everything.
quasi political rambling
Maybe they also think a little pushing now will require a lot more effort to push back later, and then they can depend on their mega churches and Fox News screaming about that, or maybe they just figure they’ll ride this wave and by the time there’s enough push back, they’ll have moved on to autobiographies and speaking gigs. It’s incidental , artifactual, but they will skew more extreme. And unfortunately the rest of us get to be on the ground for it.