The thing is that the GOP and thus America has the soul of a car dealer. Rent-seeking, grasping, anti-competitive, dependent on stacked decks, and convinced that they were born on third because of their innate talent and competence.
The car dealer is the American feudal lord or nobility. The car dealer is given a territory which he possesses and which is inheritable, a larger lord may buy his right or marry into it but the peasantry can’t purchase an RMA. The great houses only get bigger, the minor nobles only shrink, the bloodline only becomes more incestuous. It is inherently rent-seeking and is extractive, neither the manufacturer or client receives a benefit and the car dealer’s position is ultimately secured by the government. And yet the car dealer believes their little fiefdom and the rents they pay extract are the essence of the free market.
Imagine an entire economy and government with the mentality of the grubbiest Hyundai dealer in a mid-major metropolitan area. That’s what we have.