The "big tent" of the Republican Party: Who's welcome there?

 

Ten GOP members of the U.S. House of Representative who voted to impeach Donald Trump?  LOCK THEM UP!

Washington Post, 5/9/2021

Mutual respect for casting a consequential vote has bonded the 10 pro-impeachment House Republicans, as has the backlash they have received for rebuking Trump. Eight of the 10 have been censured by the Republican Party in their states, with Gonzalez most recently being admonished and facing calls to resign.

GOP member of the U.S. House accused to having sex with underage girls?  PARTY ON!

Fox News, 4/3/2021 

Long before bombshell allegations of federal sex trafficking rocked the political world this week, Rep. Matt Gaetz's rumored sexual conduct was already a source of controversy.

When Gaetz was a young state lawmaker in the Florida House of Representatives, he allegedly participated in a competition with fellow male lawmakers to earn points for their sexual conquests, the Business Insider reported Friday. 

Having sex with married lawmakers and spending the night in a college sorority house earned the lawmakers extra points. And the ultimate prize was sleeping with one particular conservative woman, they dubbed the "snitch," in a nod to the "Harry Potter" game of Quidditch, a Republican who worked with Gaetz in the 2010s revealed in an interview with the Insider.

Original 5/10/2021 post starts here.

NPR, 5/10/2021

"Oh, my God. Oh, my God. I cannot stand her," said Ria Amiess after the rally. "Why does she hate Trump? She's supposed to be out of the Republican Party, you know? The Republican Party needs to be united." 

Don Perrin put it more succinctly. 

"If you're going to be a party person, you got to be a party person. And she went against the party," he said.

And in today's GOP, a "party person" means someone who demonstrates an unquestioning, unyielding fealty to Donald Trump.