Ask too much of tyrant, when America becomes Republican (8)
I believe the answer is:
overload
'ask too much of' is the definition.
(load with too much)
'tyrant when america becomes republican' is the wordplay.
I cannot really understand how this works, but
'when' could be 'e' (I've seen this in other clues) and 'e' is found within the answer.
'america' could be 'a' (common abbreviation eg in USA) and 'a' is found in the answer.
'republican' could be 'r' (political abbreviation) and 'r' is present in the answer.
This explanation may well be incorrect...
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for overload that I've seen before include "Put on too much weight" , "saddle" , "Place too great a burden on" , "Weigh down" , "Excessive amount" .)