Earlier this month news broke that former national security advisor Michael Flynn had struck a deal with the investigative team exploring Russian attempts to meddle in the 2016 election. That same day, Gallup recorded Donald Trump's approval rating at a record low 33 per cent – and his disapproval rating at 62 per cent, the highest for a US president in seven decades.

With investigators closing in and public support crumbling, Trump is once again the focus of liberal (and some conservative) impeachment fantasies. But even now, impeachment remains only fantasy. That's because the Republican base remains fiercely loyal to the flailing President – and because, in a radical change from previous eras of American politics, Republicans are pursuing a base-only strategy to pass their agenda.

The base's continued loyalty is puzzling, not only because Trump's own track record on loyalty is so dismal, but because he has reversed course on any number of his campaign promises. The economic populism that earned him followers on the campaign trail has been inverted in the Republican tax plan, a breathtaking monument to plutocracy that is poised to explode the deficit and trigger an inflationary spiral.

The disaster of a bill, partially handwritten and forced through the Senate after Republicans voted against giving senators a chance to read it, is the only notable legislative achievement of nearly a year of unified Republican government under Trump. Yet three out of four Republican voters continue to support Donald Trump, evidence that they are more interested in grievance than governance. (And their continued approval suggests something other than economic grievance explains their support for the President.)