The Republican party is not serving the public; they’re serving their voters and their donors. Everyone else is vermin.
There is a lesson in the demise of Senators Flake, Corker, and perhaps Heller and McConnell. If people think that voting for an extremist authoritarian party is going to work in the short term and that they can be challenged when they go too far, think again. It’s not enough to support the extremists 90% of the time (Flake). It’s not enough to support them during the campaign when few other colleagues did (Corker). It’s not enough to go to unprecedented lengths to ensure his lone legislative success (McConnell). They have learned the hard way that they are dealing with people who fight for the sake of fighting. There is no diplomacy with these people. No reasoning with them. Authoritarians don’t really care what your credentials are. You are never free to voice your own thoughts, voice your own opposition. If someone opposes them, then they are treated like vermin just as their liberal opposition are. They become enemies of the state all the same. This is true for officeholders and this is true for voters as well.
Right now it’s the Republican party that is being held hostage, but it could one day be an entire country. Right now the crime for disobedience is losing a political office. In the future, it could be jail or worse. The Nazification of the Republican party is real, and if this isn’t stopped, it’ll be the Nazification of an entire country.