For as long as human beings have attempted to govern by means of obtaining sort-of consent from the masses, there have been stupid politicians who think they can benefit from engendering the mob. For a while it seems to work. See the mob drool! Hear the mob howl! Love how the mob wants to tear your opponents to shreds! Adore how the mindless mob repeats every soundbite you feed them!

And then...

The mob grows more and more powerful and more and more out of control.

The French revolution led to The Terror, in which those who engendered it perished at the hands of the mob. The Russian Revolution, encouraged by naïve bourgeoise politicians like Kerensky, led inexorably to Stalin's Purges. Right-wing politicians in Germany encouraged Hitler's mob and subsequently came to predictably bad ends.

But no one learns anything from history and so the US Republican Party has been feeding the mob for the last few decades. It's fitting that leading Republicans will now live in fear of the very monster they created.

But no one will learn anything from the experience. Again.