There are no perfect analogies, but the one that I think comes closest to describing the dynamic that has prevailed within the Republican coalition from 2016 on is illustrated by a scene in Stanley Kubrick’s Full Metal Jacket (1987).
You might remember it. Dutifully chronicling events as he stands over a mass grave filled with the lye-covered bodies of North Vietnamese Army regulars, Vietcong, civilians — we cannot know which — a soldierly Matthew Modine is confronted by the inexplicably irate Pogue Colonel, played by the late Bruce Boa. “What’s that supposed to be? Some kind of sick joke?” Boa asks, struggling to reconcile Modine’s peace-symbol button with the phrase “born to kill” written on his helmet. “I think I was trying to suggest something about the duality of man, sir,” Modine reluctantly replies. Boa is as befuddled by his counterpart’s sartorial choices as he is by the logic that inspired them. “Whose side are you on, son?” he asks after an exasperated beat. “How about getting with the program? Why don’t you jump on the team and come in for the big win?”
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