Somehow?

“He intimidates people because he will attack viciously and relentlessly, much more than any other politician, yet somehow people crave his approval.” ⁦@MikeDuHaime⁩ https://t.co/inay1RpLnq

— Maggie Haberman (@maggieNYT) April 14, 2021

He's the schoolyard bully whom they hope to appease lest he beat them up. They don't "crave his approval," they fear the base he could unleash in a primary.  That he controls the base of the GOP is fundamentally the GOP's problem. I mean, how'd that work out for them in Georgia? Or in the 2020 Presidential election?  How many districts are going to elect Boebert or MJG?  Hell, there aren't that many states that will elect another Cruz.

The GOP may gain a Senate seat or two in 2022, or maybe a few House seats.  But they are slowly getting rolled out of existence, especially as angry old white Boomers get squeezed out of existence.  There is no cataclysm coming for the party, but they are facing permanent minority status and Trump will do his best to keep it that way for the next four years.  He won't run again (hell, I don't know when he'll leave Mar-A-Lago again, except for criminal proceedings), but if he controls the party through the next round of national elections (POTUS on down), the party is screwed.

Considering how the GOP is trying to suppress votes (a matter that affects GOP voters as much as Democratic voters, much as Trump's "scheme" (it was the shriek of a wounded animal more than anything thought out) would have reversed elections from POTUS down to dog catcher, had he had his way.  If the courts had undone the election results it would have been very hard not to unzip every race on the ballot, by which I mean to stop losers in those races from trying.  The GOP is hunting a fly with a shotgun.  They're going to do a lot of damage in the process, and a lot of that damage is going to hurt them.

And I think Democrats following Biden's lead (heard from AOC lately?  Sanders?  Warren?  They aren't fools.) are going to look much more desirable as the people trying to stabilize and even preserve the process.  Trump was soundly rejected.  Trumpism was soundly rejected.  Round two of that rejection starts in Congressional races.  And I think it's more likely to start in the Senate than in the House.  It won't be the elimination of the GOP (that's not going to happen); but it may well be their decimation.  In the original Roman sense of that term.