Yet the Republican party and right-wing media are committed to opposing Biden, to pushing the Big Lie that his election was illegitimate, and to casting their supporters not as people who disagree with the president, but as perpetual victims living under existential threat. So they retreat further into their bubble, fixating on hyperbolic dangers posed by, for example, Hasbro slightly rebranding Mr. Potato Head (they still sell Mr. and Mrs. Potato Head, but the whole line is now called “Potato Head”).

That’s as unimportant as it sounds, but GOP Congressman Matt Gaetz goes around lamenting that Mr. Potato Head “got canceled,” Fox News host Greg Gutfeld claimed Mr. Potato Head got “neutered,” and Sean Hannity put together a panel to discuss the “controversy and confusion.”

Because their base is so deep in this bubble, and so committed to the Big Lie about mass voter fraud, the Republican party has essentially given up on winning a majority of voters, and is trying instead to restrict voting. GOP legislators in Georgia, Arizona, Texas, and other states are attempting to pass bills reducing early voting, creating new hurdles for mail-in voting, and even banning passing out water to voters waiting on long lines. The intention is unmistakable: fewer voters casting ballots.