In the final analysis it all comes down to Republican vs. Conservative
Bill Whittle speaks on this growing fracture here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0XU2x92X-4sThe leverage the pubbies have and exercise is "you can't win without us" - their votes are necessary to electing conservatives. Only it isn't working out that way. Trump's election win was an aberration. For the most part pubbies only support pubbies. The have no desire to build a better team. They have zero desire to winnow out the losers.
I had an exchange with one of these pubbies earlier. He tossed that meme out like a Molotov cocktail. I reminded him that we (conservatives) aren't the enemy - something in the ratcheted rhetoric had somehow gotten obscured.
After a few back n forths where he demonstrated that he was hidebound to his position I decided to become equally obstinate.
"For years I have considered myself to be a "Reliable Republican" whose vote could be count upon. That has ended. Now you have to earn my vote. Starting with the last election only those I have determined worthy have received my vote. No more 'vote the ticket' for me."
His response was a sneering "That's how Democrats get elected!" and embarked on a convoluted, circular logic that implies that voting for one thing guarantees that you'll get something else, or something insult insult insult"
I bid him a good day and reminded him that there were more of us than there are of him. And growing in both numbers and determination...