This, I suspect, is what GOP officeholders are thinking — that they can and must try to ride the tiger of the Republican base. And that if they do, the rewards could be substantial, just as the electoral consequences for the party going forward could be catastrophic if they fail.

The problem with this strategy, of course, is that the tiger can turn on and devour the ostensibly responsible rider on its back, much as it did when Trump took advantage of the party’s hesitation to take down his candidacy in the run-up to the 2016 primaries and as a result ended up winning the nomination and wresting control of the party away from its well-meaning institutional minders. “This time will be different” may be consoling to some. But in the wake of Trump’s presidency, the sentiment lacks evidence and feels quite a lot like wishful thinking.

Just as it was the whole country that suffered when Trump became the Republican nominee in 2016, so it is all Americans who could lose if the GOP continues down the path of delegitimizing elections. When one large faction of citizens begins to blame its losses on the rules of the game, the system breaks down, with those who feel themselves systematically disenfranchised going outside the bounds of normal politics to find other, often violent, ways of acquiring and holding onto power.