MOBILE, Alabama — For a perfect example of the hold President Trump has on Republican “base” voters, look no farther than the behavior of candidates in the much-watched GOP primary race for United States Senate in Alabama.

In a battle to attract the (supposedly) Trump-besotted Republican voters in next March’s primary, each of the candidates has cravenly rushed to sound the most Trump-like in their stances on the Ukraine-impeachment mess. Rather than show any judiciousness, any acknowledgment that Trump’s attempt to sic a foreign government on a political rival is unprecedented and at least somewhat disturbing, the candidates sound like caricatures. Unable even to show originality, they mimic Trump’s now-clichéd buzzwords and paranoia-inducing rhetoric.