okay so like yes, *obviously* the unhinged right wing element made responding to COVID that much harder, absolutely. why that ends up being a problem for the Dems is that when the ball is actually in their court, they choose time and time again to own goal instead of crush the opposition.
The base does not expect anything productive from the Republicans, because if they did they'd be Republicans. They *expect* things from their party, so when they party inevitably fails to do so - often in pursuit of Republican voters favor - of COURSE they're gonna be mad!
COVID is a great example of this in action. There was little to no effort to combat misinformation, they pulled the stimulus switcheroo, and as soon as they could began relaxing as many guidelines as they could without drastically raising death numbers.
All of this, to chase moderate and conservative approval, to change the media narrative. Every time they get shit slung at them, they (to reference the original post) don't apologize, they scoop it up, eat it, and then tell the monkey how good it tastes.