Republicans Own Fault
The Republican elite allowed themselves to become so greedy for influential power by buying politicians, that they all tried to varying degrees to "buy", I mean support, one of the 17 presidential candidate, and in the end lost with Trump who claims he's self-funded and can't be bought.
The main weakness of the Republican Party is that while it built a reputation of being conservative, with family values, really it is run by rich elites for the sole purpose of serving their best interests.
How is it conservative to produce goods and services at the expense of the environment? To wage unconstitutional wars and "expense it" to the middle and lower class, both monetarily through taxes and with their children's lives, while the rich not only don't pay for it, but actually profit.
But that's a tough mission to sell to needed voters since the number of the rich elite isn't enough to win elections–so we define conservative as fundamental Christian values that God wants all to obey, and code to hide an appeal to the racist tendencies inherent in our culture and to which very, very few of us are completely immune.