If you haven’t heard, Republican Sen. John Cassidy lost his primary to two more extreme Republicans. While Cassidy is a conservative–not a RINO (Republican in Name Only)–he did vote to impeach Trump (which is probably why Trump endorsed someone else). Cassidy certainly knew better than Trump did on public health, though that did not translate into meaningful action, as Cassidy was the deciding vote for HHS Secretary Kennedy’s confirmation.

The current reality is that even Cassidy could not survive in today’s Republican Party, for reasons that Republican Rep. Massie, who also lost his primary to a more pro-Trump candidate, laid out nearly a decade ago:

“All this time,” Massie explained, “I thought they were voting for libertarian Republicans. But after some soul searching I realized when they voted for Rand and Ron and me in these primaries, they weren’t voting for libertarian ideas — they were voting for the craziest son of a bitch in the race. And Donald Trump won best in class, as we had up until he came along.”

What Democrats should take from this is that there can be few, if any, compromises with a party like this. It has descended into a spiral where its base requires increasing radicalism (or reactionarism) to maintain its fix.