Pretty good article. The problem however is that while the republicans nominally control government, in reality they don't. Truth be told, corporate-controlled republicans like Ryan, McConnell and McCain are closer to dems like Schumer than to the Freedom Caucus guys or Heaven forbid, to Trump. Plenty of of Trump populists say their second choice was Sanders. So there are like three republican parties, all somewhat pretending to be one but in fact with diametrically opposing policies. By contrast, the dems have ruthlessly purged all but the extreme far left from their ranks. They have a couple of outliers, like Manchin of WV, but there are rarer than black republicans.
So it's far easier for dems to push extreme policies, particularly since they are only competitive in antifa-occupied territory anyway. They aren't concerned about turning off middle class whites, because they aren't voting for them anyway.