Conservative commentator Max Boot pinned the blame for the GOPs descent into madness and sedition firmly on its leadership or lack thereof in his latest column for The Washington Post.

Boot torched prominent Donald Trump -adoring Republicans including House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (Calif.), Texas Gov. Greg Abbott and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis as unprincipled opportunists who have embraced the lunatic fringe of their party and allowed it to be captured by the crazies.

In the past, Republican leaders stood up to the zealots in their midst. Today, they stoke the flames of extremism and wonder why they keep getting burned, wrote Boot, who left the GOP in 2016 in protest of Trump.

Mock the Republican grassroots all you like. But the real problem is the complete abdication of responsibility by Republican leaders, Boot wrote.

Rather than trying to restrain the zeal of their most fanatical followers, they are amplifying it, he said. Blame the partys elites, not its rank and file, for its descent into madness and sedition.

Read Boots full column here.