Party loyalty in politics is nothing new. The fact is, most people who vote for Democrats and Republicans are “party” people. Meaning it doesn’t much matter what positions an individual candidate or office holder has on issues. Voters walk into a booth, look at the party and vote for the Republican or the Democrat. It is the case in most scenarios, and that’s just a fact.

Hard-core supporters are there and don’t like it when you criticize their guy. That’s understandable as well. But those are issues between voters, not the party and the candidates running under the banner of that party.

When it comes to candidates and people in office, the Republican National Committee has a responsibility to back Republicans. As much as it stung for some people, Donald Trump won the nomination, and the party infrastructure backed him. It didn’t matter if he smeared fellow Republican candidates with lies and ridiculous conspiracy theories. The party supported him because it does so for Republicans. 

However, it doesn’t appear as though that kind of thinking applies to other Republicans now, especially if they’ve been critical of Donald Trump:

The Republican National Committee isn’t spending big for New Jersey gubernatorial candidate Kim Guadagno because the RNC doesn’t think she has been loyal to President Trump, NJ.com reported Wednesday.

Guadagno, currently the lieutenant governor under Gov. Chris Christie (R), is viewed skeptically by the RNC because of her criticism of Trump after the release of the “Access Hollywood” tape and as a lost cause, the report said.

“[The president] is unhappy with anyone who neglected him in his hour of need,” an RNC insider reportedly said, referring to Guadagno’s public disavowal of Trump last fall after the surfacing last year of the “Access Hollywood” tape, in which Trump brags about sexually assaulting women.

Here is what Guadagno said in the wake of the Access Hollywood tape:

No apology can excuse away Mr. Trump's reprehensible comments degrading women. We're raising my 3 boys to be better than that.

— Kim Guadagno (@KimGuadagnoNJ) October 8, 2016

If the RNC stated that they weren’t going all in because Guadagno is trying to ride into office on the scorched coattails of Chris Christie, that might make some sense. But that isn’t the justification here. The thinking appears to be Guadagno didn’t rush in to defend Donald Trump when audio tape revealed he thinks men in positions of power can do what they want with women sans repercussions.

What Guadagno did was not unreasonable. She was hardly the first Republican to distance themselves from Trump when that tape hit the public airwaves. Now the RNC is going to withhold funds and assistance from a Republican candidate because of Donald Trump? Since when did the RNC become beholden to one person instead of the party as a whole?

It only proves Trump doesn’t just want loyalty. He wants slavish devotion. Fealty. Without it, he has no use for a person. It is a dangerous method if the GOP wants to grow. If the party is going to refuse help for people who have been Republicans far longer than President Trump because his thin skin can’t deal with criticism, it doesn’t bode well for the future.

Grow up, Mr. President. And just as important, I say to the RNC: Grow a spine. You have more important issues to think about and much more coming your way.