And yet the Republican base will mindlessly and dutifully vote for them again. They are stuck on stupid.
You do the best you can with your votes but when the pols get to Washington they learn very quickly that they can be wealthy for life by toeing the line even if it costs them re-election and ostracized and limited to their salaries if they do not. That is why out of all those conservative firebrands that went to Washington in 2012 and 2014 only 4 or 5 are still functionally conservative.