"My read of it all is that Einstein was too smart to define the broad scope of insanity in such narrow terms. However, the quote has been used effectively by Alcoholics Anonymous for many decades to drive home a simple point in a specified context and so I think it most probably originated from someone in that organisation like Dr. Silkwood or Bill Wilson, possibly as far back as the 1930's."
https://www.quora.com/Did-Einstein-really-define-insanity-as-doing-the-same-thing-over-and-over-again-and-expecting-different-results

Republicans have been leading the rubes around by their resentments and prejudices to their own economic detriment since the 1950s but there are no longer any significant liberal Republican influence to moderate this process. The cranks that William F. Buckley so detested have taken over the party.