On the surface, it may seem odd for a bunch of McCainites to be rallying behind a man who came to Congress heralded as the next Ron Paul. After all, it was only six-plus years ago that the curmudgeonly maverick lumped Amash with Ron Paul’s senator son and Sen. Ted Cruz (R–Texas) as “wacko birds.” (“Bravo, Senator. You got us,” Amash clapped back.)

But one of the features of our political moment is that anti-Trump activity on the right tends to emanate from two main camps: Libertarians (Amash, Judge Andrew Napolitano, etc.), and neoconservative-style interventionists (Bill Kristol, David Frum), with the second group being considerably larger. A third category, Mormons, is dispersed liberally within the other two.

So it was only a matter of time before the strange bedfellows collaborated more directly. And while it’s tempting to concoct theories for what these disparate groupings have in common that Trump’s base does not, the grim reality for all is that they have been driven to the outer margins of the modern Republican Party.