And while you may be shocked to see ideology so easily trump party affiliation, you shouldn't be. Take a look, for instance, at this New York Times article from 2014.

Back then, much of the GOP establishment was filled with trepidation about a frontrunner in the 2016 Republican presidential campaign. Mark Salter, John McCain's former chief of staff, said that if this particular candidate won the nomination, "Republican voters seriously concerned with national security would have no responsible recourse" other than to vote for Clinton.

They weren't worried about Donald Trump, though.

The Republican candidate they were planning to spurn in favor of Clinton was Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky.

The Republican mandarins' preemptive rejection of Paul clarifies the real reason they're excommunicating Trump today.