This year, the Republican candidate for governor in Georgia was decided in a special runoff election between Brian Kemp and Casey Cagle, the top two finishers in the Republican primary. Before the runoff election, Casey Cagle was secretly recordedtalking about the craziness of the Georgia Republican primary. He said:

The problem is in a primary—and you and I are just talking off-the-record frank—they don’t give a shit about those things. Okay. In the general election, they care about it. Okay. But they don’t care about it in a primary. This primary felt like it was who had the biggest gun, who had the biggest truck, and who could be the craziest. Kemp quickly pounced on these remarks and used them to win the runoff by 40 points—which, ironically, validated Cagle’s remarks. Here in Ohio, I saw the same thing in our race for governor. The entire race was about who was the most conservative. Mary Taylor called Mike DeWine a “liberal” and DeWine said Taylor was a criminal, so “lock her up.” You’ve probably seen something similar in a race where you live. Conspiracy theorists are falling out of trees in Republican primaries. So why is this going, on and what can we learn from it?

Politicians are cowards Almost a year before the 2016 election, Devin Nunes spoke with The New Yorker about then-House Speaker John Boehner’s ouster. Nunes told the author that one of the biggest changes he’s seen since his arrival in 2002 is the rise of online media outlets and for-profit groups that spread bad or even false information: I used to spend ninety per cent of my constituent response time on people who call, e-mail, or send a letter, such as, ‘I really like this bill, H.R. 123,’ and they really believe in it because they heard about it through one of the groups that they belong to, but their view was based on actual legislation. Ten per cent were about ‘Chemtrails from airplanes are poisoning me’ to every other conspiracy theory that’s out there. And that has essentially flipped on its head. Today, the calls and emails are 90 percent about the bad information and conspiracy theories, and only a small percentage are about things that are actually true. Of course today, we know Nunes as the point man from the House Intelligence Committee who keeps trying to push the lie that it was Hillary Clinton who actually colluded with Russia. Nunes is also a global warming denier even as Fresno, the largest city in his California district, experienced a record consecutive days with highs that topped 100 degrees. Nunes is now one of the leaders in disinformation. Why? Because Fox News and other right-wing conspiracy media outlets have made him famous. His fame has brought in $7.4 million in campaign donations, the most of any California Republican. This is also three to seven times any previous amount he’s raised. So … conspiracy away! In three years Nunes went from Freedom Party critic to one of the lead conspiracy theorists in Congress. Along the way, he threw out every principle he once might have had. He’s not a leader. He’s a Fox News puppet.

Devin Nunes calls his own paper, The Sacramento Bee, ‘fake news’

It’s important to understand that this is not just true for Nunes, but for most politicians

It’s easy for liberals to see this with Devin Nunes because he’s a lying conspiracy theorist Republican.

The mistake we often make, however, is seeing Democratic politicians differently. They’re not conspiracy theorists like Nunes. But they also don’t tend to be leaders like we want them to be. They have to get elected, too. So they will do what it takes to get elected. They will champion causes that are hot-button issues in the media. They will talk about what they think they can talk about in order to win. If an issue is going to hurt them politically, they may avoid it.

The simple model for what they’re doing looks like this:

Social change -> political change -> policy change

Social change is cultural change. It is what is popular in the public mind. Political change is winning elections. And policy change is when politicians write legislation.

Politicians will do what those who get them elected want.

If we look at someone saying this on the Democratic side, it looks like Barack Obama in 2009 talking about health care. Obama took a page out of President Franklin Roosevelt’s playbook. FDR once met with a group of activists who wanted support for new, bold legislation. After listening to their arguments, he then said, “You’ve convinced me. Now go out and make me do it.”

What he meant by “make me do it” was to accomplish the social change necessary to keep representatives in power long enough to effect the policy change.

If you want something done in our country, you have to have representatives in government to do it. To accomplish this, you have to change social norms.

This process is the same whether you want to get the money out of politics or whether you believe in some big government conspiracy.

Why the Republican Party has abandoned reality

The things corporate special interests want are not popular in America.

They want to

Pay people less and get them to work more

Eliminate benefits like health care

Keep all the profits for themselves (privatize the profit)

Shift any of the costs and risks onto everyone else (socialize the risks)

They don’t care at all about whether or not people lead decent lives. All that matters are the returns they can deliver in quarterly reports.

If they have to buy government to do this, so be it.

If what they want isn’t popular, they’re going to look for ways to get politicians elected without having to talk about these issues. Toward this end, they have purchased media bullhorns and they’ve developed a story about good and evil to tell people.

We all know this story.

If you are a conservative, you are a good defender of capitalism. If you are a liberal, you are an evil socialist who is trying to destroy the country.

Whether or not this is true does not matter to them. What matters is whether they can get politicians elected.

This is why the Republican Party has detached from reality. Corporate special interest legislation is not popular with people, so corporate special interests have to create a different reality: one in which corruption is good (today we call it “business friendly” or “free” markets) and one in which democracy is bad (people should not interfere with corruption).

What this means for your conversations

Many people I know don’t like to hear that politicians are cowards. They want politicians to be activists who are leading the push for change.

I find it comforting to understand politicians because if we understand politicians, we have a better chance of actually creating change.

If we expect politicians to be activists, we will always be disappointed. Why? Because by and large they can’t lead the activist charge. If they do, they get unelected.

Keep in mind, this doesn’t mean we don’t need activists. We absolutely need people creating social change. We need to make it possible for politicians to support something and stay elected.

We need both movements and politicians.

If you do this right, you can even get politicians to support conspiracy theories

That’s a joke. I don’t want them to support conspiracy theories.

The point I’m trying to make is that if people get involved and push and vote, things will change.

It will happen.

What this means practically

It means that you and I have to do certain things repeatedly.

When elections aren’t happening, we must:

Work to change our culture Push for better ideas Put as much pressure as you can on your elected politicians (no matter what party they’re in) Get involved with an activist group Reach out to people, especially people who might be different from you, and find out what interests them Make as many connections as possible—build your networks

During primaries:

Vote for the most liberal politician who can win (this might not be who makes you feel good) Support candidates Contribute to their campaigns Get involved in party politics Encourage others to vote and get involved Do this up and down the ticket Help people understand how politics works and how change happens

During general elections

Repeat the same steps as for the primaries

Corporate special interests are going to try to convince you that change isn’t possible. They will try to discourage you. They will spread fear and they will do whatever they can to keep people from voting.

Demographics are changing in favor of the Democratic Party. On issue after issue, the Democratic Party is on the side of the American people.

All we have to do is make enough politicians pay the price for abandoning reality.