I have been trying to wrap my head around why some Republicans seem genuinely surprised at what is happening. I have come to the conclusion that some thought it was a game. They honestly thought that when you had people calling Obama a secret Muslim, that it was "just politics", a bit of fun name-calling and that's all. They thought they were playing games, throwing fake red meat at the base to get them to have a fake angry response. Even after some of their constituents were goaded into attacking the government, they were still in denial about the reality of the situation they helped create. The monster is real, and they have spent multiple decades feeding it, and it was all fun and games when the monster was chained up, but Trump broke the chains, and now they are worried about what the monster will do to the village.