My only criticism of your take is that you are of the mind that the GOPe cares what the results are.
They don’t care. They are insiders and have keys to the club. Whether reelected or not reelected they are bought and paid for. They sit at the table of power no matter what their elected status is AS LONG AS THEY ARE USEFUL TO THEIR MASTERS.
Whether they have an office near the Capitol or an office on K Street, they are insiders, members of the club.
The GOPe forms a buffer between the ruling party which is mostly made up of democrats and the ‘extremists’. Their role is to ‘manage’ and ‘marginalize’ the ‘extremists’ on the right. This is what they are hired to do.
So it doesn’t matter whether they are in office or out of office because they are in the club and the living is good.
Example: Bob Dole.
You are correct, it is who they play too, not the Constitution, we are so screwed...