As I have said before: Republicans are worse than nazis at this point. Being the richest country in the world, and having the free time to learn from History what no to do or be, yet they decide to be the worst and double down on everything just proves that they are not really "children of God", but demons as they say
Funnily enough Germany was the richest nation in the years running up to WW1. And then after at least Berlin was one of the most tolerant places in the world before the Nazis came to power. Would still be considered extremely progressive. I do wonder sometimes if the extreme wealth led to progressiveness, WW1 never got to Berlin after all. The Nazis used the decent of the populace into poverty because of the sanctions of Versailles as fire for their cause. Boogymen were provided by the Nazis in the form of minorities such as the Jews to justify abhorrent behaviors.
I see many many similarities in the US today. From wealth disparity to the boogyman of the "immigrants" and so on. Instead of Versailles it's the sanctions of the environment etc etc.
I would say it has nothing to do with environmental regulations, but with lower taxes for the super rich and other stuff like that, which came from increasing influence of rich people in politics.
That lead to increasing poverty, which (combined with lots of propaganda from media owned by rich people) leads to increasingly radical conservative voters, which only lead to more poverty.