I think they went further than that and said "WE WILL KILL THOSE CONSERVATIVE PESTS TRYING RUIN OUR GOOD THING HERE."
The GOPe is the 3P party: power, plunder and perks. Conservatives threaten all of those which is why we are more feared and hated than the Democrats. If the GOPe loses to the Democrats, they know the 3Ps will still be there and they just may have to wait another election cycle. If conservatives got into government, they would reduce the 3Ps and that would piss off GOPes and Democrats alike.
Insanity is sometimes defined by doing the same thing again and again and expecting a different result.
The GOP has hollowed itself out by for too long relying on ‘Vote for us, we are not Democrats’. That dog will no longer hunt.
I am placing my energies into the Libertarian party because they honestly believe in smaller government.
Progress in the social arena is a moral issue and not well suited to government decrees. There you have to win by persuasion, not by force of government.
Paraphrasing a sorely missed former president, “I did not leave the GOP, the GOP left me”.