So Aaron, there's a weird little result from Super Tuesday that I wanted to tell you about because I think it says a lot about why our politics are the way they are these days.

Is it that Marianne Williamson beat Dean Phillips in Arkansas, California, Oklahoma,

Texas, Utah, Virginia, and Vermont? Yes, we Williamson? No, it's the race for a

state house seat in Texas. It's in the suburbs of San Antonio,

held by a guy named Dade Phelan, a Republican. He's actually the speaker of the Texas House of Representatives.

Oh, I know this guy.

Powerful guy even has support from some Democratic lawmakers, which he needed to get that speaker

job.

But also, you know, a Texas state lawmaker helped pass some of the country's

strictest abortion restrictions and loosis gun laws a party official called him

quote the most conservative leader that we've ever had in the state of Texas that sounds

like it has to be an exaggeration.

Well on Tuesday in the Republican primary, his own party voted against him 46 to 43

for not being conservative enough. He hasn't lost his seat yet. It'll go to a runoff.

But it feels like a real sign of where we're headed. The Republican Party is pulling so far to the right that if it were a car

it'd be doing donuts.

I'm Aaron Ryan and I'm Max Fisher and this is how we got here a new series where Max and

I explore a big question behind the week's headlines and tell a story that answers that question.

At this point you probably feel like you know what we're going to say, that Republicans are getting more extreme and

more ideological and that's all there is to it.

Well you wouldn't be wrong about the Republicans.

You wouldn't, but there is a much bigger story here that we want to tell you about.

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