Larry Hogan had the audacity to say that the jury verdict in the Trump case should be respected. For that apparently banal comment, he was accused of being a RINO by the RNC. What does that tell us?
The Republican Party used to stand for limited government, traditional values and institutions, and a robust national defense. That devolved into unquestioning support for tax cuts for wealthy people and cultural intolerance after the Reagan presidency. Now, it seems, even that malignant ideology is gone; the GOP defines itself as the party that stands unconditionally behind Donald Trump no matter what he says or does on any given day.
In other words, Ben Sasse was wrong; American conservatism is, in fact, about the weird worship of one dude.