The ability to win power without winning votes is a powerful disincentive to change. As we see with Trump’s struggle to break out of his MAGA echo chamber, it stunts a politician’s — and a party’s — ability to reach beyond the faithful. It has also stimulated, among the Republican rank-and-file, a real disdain for what the Republican senator Mike Lee called “rank democracy,” exemplified in the assertion that the United States is a “republic, not a democracy.” It makes sense: If more democracy would make it harder for Republicans to win, then more democracy can’t be good.

The United States will always have a conservative party, but American democracy needs that party to be committed to the maintenance of our democratic institutions. The only way to plot a path from here to there is to forcibly change the incentives within the Republican Party, which is to say, the only way to break the fever is to change the rules of the game. A more democratic American democracy — where majorities elect and majorities rule — would force the Republican Party to try, once again, to compete for national majorities.