In the end, the Republican Party decided that Rep. Madison Cawthorn’s (R-NC) unforgivable sin was not his starring role on the stage from which then-President Donald Trump beckoned his followers to march to the Capitol and “stop the steal.” It was not his false claims that those Jan. 6 rioters were crisis actors “paid by the Democratic machine” nor was it his declaration that Volodymyr Zelensky is a “thug” presiding over the “evil” nation of Ukraine.

No. In the end, the Republican Party establishment decided to knife Cawthorn only because of his audacity to turn on the “swamp.” In Tuesday’s primary, the well-coordinated effort from GOP leadership has brought the 26-year-old’s career in elected office to an end little more than a year after it began. With the entire state party’s backing and less than 2,000 votes extra, state Sen. Chuck Edwards beat Cawthorn in his Super Tuesday primary, rendering the freshman the lamest of lame ducks…

It’s probably for the good of both the party and Cawthorn personally that his career in elected office is done — at least for now, anyway. But the moral of the story is less sanguine: The GOP establishment can tolerate any level of demagoguery, but challenge Beltway secrecy or its standing in the eyes of the plebeian class, even in the most unserious of ways, and the swamp will always strike back.