Utah

Holy crap.

Your average GOP congresscritter understands a basic calculus: He or she (ok, he) has more to fear from a primary challenge on the right than from a general election foe.  This would be doubly true for someone like Chaffetz.

But what if their calculus is wrong? In 1994, the presence of a Democrat in the White House made a lot of conservative Southerners decide that having a Democratic Representative was no longer as appealing.  Could Trump make moderate voters - including some Republican and Republican-leaning suburban professionals - swing hard to the Democrats in 2018?

The thing is, 9/11 pretty much drove the GOP insane.  That was when the ethno-nationalists and mouth-breathing John Birchers became ascendant.  Fed on a steady diet of Fox News, they divorced from reality.  But Obama, and to a much lesser degree Dubya, held the crazy in check.

Now the crazy is on full display.  And the presumably non-crazy Republicans are marching in the parade down crazy street.

The key will be for Democrats to make sure they run 435 strong House candidates and 34 strong Senate candidates and however many strong gubernatorial candidates and - while we're at it - thousands of good state house candidates.

The Trump Shit Show is not going to get better.  Make it an anchor around the GOP's neck.