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Donald Trumps presidency has truly gone through the looking glass.

Were debating how much collusion with Russians to help win the 2016 presidential election is enough to justify prosecution or removal from office not whether the Trump team was interested (we know now that , at the very least, senior Trump campaign advisers attempted to accept help from Russia).In this bizarro world, the president of the United States takes to Twitter to claim his complete power to issue pardons including, he seems to believe, the power to pardon himself (it isfar from clearthat he could legally do this, but the fact that this is on the table is unprecedented and deeply disturbing).

Another possible constitutional crisis is on the horizon as Trumpmay be readying to fire Robert Mueller, the special counsel investigating possible crimes committed by Trump or members of his campaign and administration. Trump also is engaged in a bizarre effort to bully Attorney General Jeff Sessions out of his job,potentially as part of a plan to then remove Muellerfrom his position, an end game that would be reminiscent ofPresident Richard NixonsSaturdayNight Massacre.

What does the U.S. political party holding the most power say about this upside-down reality? Many observers wonder what could move Republicans in Congress to act in defense of The Constitution and American democracy. Surely theyll draw the line somewhere, right? The only reason they havent acted yet, we assume, is that in order to advance their legislative agenda on items like health care and tax cuts for the wealthy, Republicans are willing to hold their noses and put up with possible Russian collusion and suspicions that the Trump administration obstructed justice.

That may be too generous a reading. It presumes congressional Republicans understand that Trump threatens our constitutional system and they would, under the right conditions, rein him in (lets say, after key legislation is passed or if Trump fires Mueller).In other words, Republicans are willing to put up with a president they see as dangerous if it helps them achieve policy goals, but their support for Trump personally is grudging, at best.

There could be one other possibility: Trumps anti-democratic approach fits perfectly with a Republican party that often benefits from anti-democratic strategies.Consider:

1. Voter suppression: A central part of Republican electoral strategy is aimed at suppressing the voteof segments of the U.S. population likely to vote Democratic. This approach has been successful , involving tactics including targeting voter ID laws, reductions in early voting hours, disenfranchisement of more than six million adultswith felony convictions, androlling back the Voting Rights Act. The Brennan Center notes that so far in 2017 at least 99 bills aimed at making it harder to register to vote and/or to vote have beenintroduced in 31 states.Trumpscontroversial voting commissionis designed to support these efforts at the national level.

2. Gerrymandering: Republicans havedrawn congressional district linesto the extent that they can win an easy majority in the House of Representatives without actually winning a majority of the popular votes cast. In 2016, Republicans won 49.9% of the votes cast for House members nationwide while Democrats won 47.3%, but gerrymandering gave Republicans control of55.2% of House seats while Democrats ended up with just 44.8%. With district lines drawn as they are, it is quite possible that Democrats could win a majority of House votes cast nationwidewithout winning a majority of seats.

There may be good reasons to stop majorities from deciding every matter.For instance, in a constitutional democracy, a simple majority cannot take away the minoritys constitutional rights. But voter suppression and gerrymandering are not about protecting minority rights in any legitimate sense of the term: theyre about preventing people from fully participating in the democratic process.Republicans understand this, and have used these tools to their advantage.

How could this help us understand why Republicans may not be moved to take evidence of connections between the Trump team and Russia more seriously?Russian interference in the 2016 election was aimed at helping Trump win, which of course is a benefit to the Republican party in general.That certainly doesnt mean that congressional Republicans were involved in any possible collusion, but it does suggest that they would see no political reason to worry about Russian help.Indeed, when the Obama administration told some congressional leaders last year that intelligence showed Russia was interfering in the election to help Trump,Republicans refused to participate in an effort to warn the American public.

Whats worse is that Republicans clearly know Russia is no friend to the United States: witness thenearly unanimous votes in Congress making it harder for Trump to undo Russia sanctions. This is telling: Republicans understand that unless he is stopped, Trump is likely to give Putin what he wants. Yet so far they are taking no meaningful action to unravel the long thread of ties between the Trump team and Russia during the campaign.

None of this is to suggest that Democrats wouldnt gerrymander districts; given the opportunity, they do. If a hostile foreign country interfered in some future election to help the Democratic party, we dont know how Democrats would respond.

Thats not what were confronted with now.The Republican Party has benefited intentionally or not from Russian interference in an election. We have a Republican president who praises Vladimir Putin at every turn and has takenactions to advance Russias preferred policy agendawithout getting anything for the United States in return.

So if youre wondering why, when congressional Republicans see this but do not act, there may be a simple explanation.

ChrisEdelsonis an assistant professor of government in American Universitys School of Public Affairs. His latest book, Power Without Constraint: The Post 9/11 Presidency and National Security , was published in May 2016 by the University of Wisconsin Press.

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Opinion: Trump's anti-democratic presidency helps Republicans stay in power - MarketWatch