A couple of lessons from Republican Senator Bill Cassidy’s primary loss in Louisiana, which should have been self-evident by now. The first lesson is unless you are completely loyal, Trump will turn on you. Second, once you break with Trump, within the Republican Party, you are almost always politically dead, especially if your break was an attempt to moderate. You become tagged as a RINO (Republican in name only), and you cannot come back from that.

Anyway, Cassidy put himself in the worst of both camps by voting for Kennedy, but opposing Trump in other ways–and to Cassidy’s credit, he did vote to impeach Trump (Cassidy must be really pissed at McConnell right now for not pushing harder on impeachment).

The final lesson is for Democrats: there are no Republican moderates left. You cannot compromise with the Republican Party as currently constituted–it is a fascist, white Christian supremacist party that is, as fascist formations are, utterly loyal to their leader, Trump, regardless of what some of its elected officials tell you in private or secretly believe.