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Richardson offered a theory as to why these chaos architects (Buchanan, Agnew, Gingrich, even Reagan) and those who benefitted from their systems were able to manipulate and experiment with the government: because βthey expected that the guardrails would hold. I always think of them like toddlers: toddlers fight against their parents because they know their parents arenβt going to throw them in the trash, and they behave well for someone who they think might throw them in the trash. They could do all this because they knew they could get away with it, because American democracy was so strong. They were provocateurs deliberately, to put themselves in power. They were all about power.β Unfortunately, it paid off. The toddlers continued taking advantage of waves of populism and national anger, while their system of disruptive governance empowered or inspired antagonistic characters beyond the Capitol, like talk radio host Rush Limbaugh.
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Brian Tyler Cohen (Shameless: Republicans' Deliberate Dysfunction and the Battle to Preserve Democracy)