Stockholm syndrome is a good explanation. It seems that most of the GOP are dem wanna-bes and think dem positions are the way to get reelected (or maybe keep the under the table payments coming).
I actually think that Stockholm syndrome (or something similar) affects the liberals also. Were people like Debbie Wasserman-Schultz or Maxine Waters the over-the-top histrionic idiots that they are now when they first were elected? Or is that, also, a result of them being in that toxic environment of DC, where they get rewarded and praised the more kooky they behave?