You are so right, the slavish devotion to the whack case from Mass. is insane.
Who would have guessed that when the anti-Reagan surfaced, that a large portion of the GOP would prostate themselves at his feet, and purr and coo, even after he led them to slaughter.
I genuinely, honestly allowed myself to be gulled into believing -- after the humiliating (and wholly avoidable) electoral @ss-thumping of 2008, re: their failed, suicidal McCain Gambit -- that even the dimmest, most politically clueless GOP-e or CINO would be able to learn from brute experience, if nothing else, and avoid pursuing the exact same loser strategy all over again, four scant years later.
I mean: even the lowly Planarian worm can be taught how to successfully negotiate a simple maze, after all. ;)