I suppose, I see this more as an acceleration of a radical-right fire which the GOP has stoked among it's base since at least Reagan, and probably since LBJ signed the Civil Rights act. They have entered a heated purification mode (a cult earmark), a process which is increasing the zealousness of their members while decreasing them in number.

I'm hoping that by the time the GOP base becomes dangerously radicalized they also will have become too small to pose much of a threat. Perhaps, what is happening to them is, maybe, analogous to the refining of a ball of Uranium while simultaneously reducing it's mass. Which threshold will be crossed first, self-refinement to an explosive chain reaction or, the self-reduction in size to below critical mass?