The leaders of the Republican party made a bet: They staked the future of their party on their ability to have a transactional relationship with Trump, getting their judges and marginal policy victories, and in return looking the other way while Trump trampled everything they claimed to stand for. They stayed quiet to save their seats. The few outwardly Trump-hostile members of Congress, like Sens. Jeff Flake and Bob Corker and Reps. Mia Love and Mark Sanford were all pushed out of their seats. Others, like Sen. Ben Sasse and Rep. Will Hurd, found a way to keep their true thoughts to themselves when speaking out mattered most.

The GOP thought that if they survive these four years, they could relax. But by accommodating Trump, they joined his revolution out of fear, and the revolution is now eating its own.

There is now an anti-GOP coalition on the right that wants the party to lose the Senate to send a message to the GOP. It includes Never Trumpers and the MAGAverse. But the truth is that Never Trumpers might want to burn it down, but they can’t. They are not radicalized revolutionaries. MAGA people are the real existential threat to the GOP. The question that Republicans face is how much longer loyalty to Trump will be the prerequisite for power in the party.