By Joel Mathis, The Week

The biggest problem in American politics these days is that Republicans have largely turned against democracy, going along with Donald Trump’s false claims that the 2020 election was stolen and laying the foundation for the party to recapture the White House in 2024 — even if Democrats win the support of voters.

The second biggest problem? Republicans are largely unified as a party, while Democrats are not. That makes the first problem even more pressing.

The GOP’s unity was on display Saturday night in Iowa. Trump held a rally with the state’s most senior Republicans at his side, including longtime Sen. Charles Grassley and Gov. Kim Reynolds. Grassley, a pillar of the party establishment, not only received Trump’s endorsement for his upcoming re-election campaign, but he also went on the conservative TV network Newsmax to complain that Trump is somehow a victim of last week’s Senate report detailing how the former president tried to use the Justice Department to subvert the 2020 election.

Grassley wasn’t shy about his motives for embracing Trump. “I was born at night, but not last night,” he told the crowd. “If I didn’t accept the endorsement of a person that’s got 91 percent of the Republican voters in Iowa, I wouldn’t be too smart.” That’s the choice that most other prominent Republicans have made, as well.

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