I don't mean especially to pick on Robert Reich, but there is a lot of this sort of thing out there. And it's silly.
Why are Democratic presidents so much more easily intimidated by the "move to the center" rhetoric after midterm losses than Republican presidents?
Because Democrats think in terms of programs, policies, and particular pieces of legislation. It's easy to reverse course by compromising more and giving up on legislative goals. Bill Clinton never mentioned the words "health care reform" after the 1994 midterms.
Republicans think in terms of simple ideas, themes, and movements. It's far harder to reverse course on these (look what happened to the first George Bush when he raised taxes), and easier to keep them alive: Republican presidents just continue looking for opportunities to implement them.
Republicans are also more disciplined (ask yourself which party attracts authoritarian personalities and which attracts anti-authoritarians). This makes it easier for them to stay the course. Their base continues to organize and fulminate even after midterm defeats. Democrats, on the other hand, are less organized. Electoral defeats tend to fracture and dissipate whatever organization they have.
Republicans are cynical about politics from the jump. Political cynicism fuels them. Democrats are idealistic about politics. When they become cynical they tend to drop out.
This is all my bum.
"Conservatives" have developed, invested in, and bought into an immensely profitable ideological industry that has a kinda-sorta analagous relationship to electoral politics as ESPN has to sports-on-the-field. That is, there's a connection, but that's not where the money is.
There is, bluntly, a tremendous financial incentive for individual actors on the American right wing to always double down on the crazy.
Fox News and the cash money it pays does not explain everything about our currently appalling polity.
It only explains 90% of it.
Another 9% is consumed with attempts to ignore the obvious.
The remaining 1% is me saying "fuck" on the Internet.
Incidentally, my new Chicago Boyz playmates:
My conscious is clear.
I kill people in the name of freedom and democracy.
Actual quotes, ladies and germs!