One caller instructed Representative Adam Kinzinger of Illinois to slit his wrists and “rot in hell.” Another hoped Representative Don Bacon of Nebraska would slip and fall down a staircase. The office of Representative Nicole Malliotakis of New York has been inundated with angry messages tagging her as a “traitor.”

Investing in the nation’s roads and bridges was once considered one of the last realms of bipartisanship in Congress, and President Biden’s infrastructure bill drew ample support over the summer from Republicans in the Senate. But in the days since 13 House Republicans broke with their party leaders and voted for the $1 trillion legislation last week, they have been flooded by menacing messages from voters — and even some of their own colleagues — who regard their votes as a betrayal…

The visceral nature of the backlash is particularly striking because House Republican leaders who lobbied their rank and file to vote against the measure have made few substantive policy arguments against the plan, which will send hundreds of billions of dollars in federal money into states and congressional districts around the country for badly needed infrastructure improvements.

Some of them even conceded publicly that they would have backed such a bill had the political circumstances been different, complaining that Democrats had poisoned the well by pushing a separate $1.85 trillion social safety net, climate and tax plan at the same time.