I hate to tell you this Charlie, but Mike Lee was an asshole well before MAGA. He was a Tea Party candidate, and if you still can't tell that the Tea Party was a farce that used "fiscal responsibility" as a cover to chase the culture war bullshit that they really wanted to go after the whole time then I don't know what else to tell you at this point.

The only good conservatives left are the ones who don't associate with MAGA anymore. Mike Lee hasn't been one of those since at least 2015. The party is now made up of either Jim Jordans or Lindsay Grahams all the way down. Strongman MAGA assholes, or the weak supportive subs who enable and help them with moral top cover justifications. That's the modern GOP. If Mike Lee had a spine made of principle he would have been treated like Romney and McCain were by the rest of MAGA. Instead, he's here, trying to hold on to his place in the party for dear life and by any means necessary. Because for these people, death is worse than political exodus.