Republicans screwed up

They set some very bad precedents.

Loyalty to their president made Republicans abandon their own principles. 

They also abandoned their own self-interest.

Trump is my president

Trump made clear throughout his presidency, and especially in the two months after the November election, that he does not respect democratic process. He really, truly, wanted to overthrow the 2020 election. 

He made phone calls to multiple people urging them to ignore the vote and give the election to him, or to "find" votes, which would give him the win, or to ask Congress to ignore electoral votes cast for his opponent, and then his Vice President to rule "out of order" votes cast for his opponent, and as a final act, urged Proud Boys and other rough people to come to the Capitol and to "be strong" and demand Congress or the Vice President retain him in office.

He really did this. A significant number of Republican officeholders affirmatively went along with it, and most others were silently consenting to it. 

They were loyal to Trump. They weren't loyal to themselves.

Void state elections. A majority of House Republicans voted that Congress should void state elections for president, elections that happened under rules agreed to and adjudicated by the states, where Americans voted thinking the agreed-upon rules were in place and their vote mattered. The votes were counted, and Biden had more votes than Trump. Republicans objected anyway, after the fact. Reverse the election, they said. Republicans really did this. This denies the longstanding Republican respect for federalism and the notion of this country as a collection of states, and that people's votes matter. Republicans are on record. Republicans who were silent are on record, too. A precedent.

Expand Executive Power. A majority of House and Senate Republicans allowed Trump to ignore their power of the purse and significantly expand the power of the executive at the expense of Congress. He ignored legislation saying how money was to be spent, and spent it the way he wanted, not how Congress voted. Republicans went along. That sets a precedent of presidential power and Congressional weakness. 

Presidents can ignore Congressional oversight. Congress issued subpoenas to Trump and executive departments, and in the impeachment inquiry sought written answers to questions. Trump ignored them. Republicans consented. After all, it was Trump, their guy. Another precedent established. 

Government control of private companies. Republicans are objecting to the decision of Twitter to de-platform Trump and of Amazon and Apple to de-platform the Twitter competitor, the free-for-all Parler. Republicans are asserting this is censorship and a denial of free speech. Those companies are not the government. They are private enterprises, objecting to Trump and Trump-supporters using their services to incite violence on Twitter, and plotting and coordination of acts of violence against the government on Parler. This puts Republicans on record that they think that government can and should tell private companies how to run their businesses. Normally Republicans are on the other side of that, especially when it involves "freedom of expression." Republicans have asserted in the past that a Christian baker had the right to refuse to create gay-themed decorations for wedding cakes, but now they are telling Twitter they must tolerate people using their platforms to plot insurrection.  Another precedent.

Vote by mail. Republicans have echoed Trump in treating vote-by-mail as fraudulent. Traditionally Republicans have used mail-in voting as a get-out-the-vote technique. Trump's attacks on it may have been his margin of loss in the close state votes in Arizona, Georgia, Nevada, and Wisconsin because he discouraged an easy, convenient way for his supporters to vote. Following Trump's lead, Republicans are now on record generally in opposition to it. Oregon votes by mail, but Oregon's own Republican Secretary of State candidate did not defend her voting system. If there will be election reform, Republicans are stuck with their record of opposition to a voting system that would better accommodate seniors, a group that currently votes disproportionately for Republicans.

Distrust of elections generally. Trump made clear his distrust of elections. He complained about the Iowa caucus vote he lost to Ted Cruz back in the 2016 primary, he complained that the election that he won in November 2016, and then in 2020 he complained bitterly about the impending fraud even when he had months to assure the election would be handled well, which is was, according to his own appointed election security chief and Attorney General. Republicans echoed Trump, saying that elections are subject to widespread fraud. This even included officeholders who were elected in the very elections they say are fraudulent. Republicans advocated--or were silent when Trump and others advocated--selection of leaders by means other than elections.

Accept insurrections by the executive against the legislature and the Constitution. Republicans are standing by their man. The GOP is Trump's party now, as Don Junior said on Wednesday, just before the Capitol riots. A majority of House Republicans voted along with Trump, right after they sheltered and hid from violent mobs attempting to find Pence, Pelosi, and other legislators and force them to reverse an election. That vote was on record. They are active supporters of Trump's insurrection or they consent silently to the premise of it, that a defeated incumbent president can deny election results, even in the face of judicial decisions to the contrary. A party leader can claim a vote is fraudulent, and by doing so raise doubts about an election within that party, and an election in which there are doubts can be ignored, so they can use existing seated officeholders to over-rule the election, and that president retained. Perfect! A self-fulling arrangement. Republicans are on record.

Accept bad character by officeholders.  

This is the worst. This won't go away for a long time. 

Republicans--even ones who are locked into tight support for Trump--generally agree that Trump does things which are disreputable. Sure, he lies, they say. Sure, he calls people names. Yeah, that call to Ukraine wasn't exactly perfect, but it wasn't clearly criminal. Yes, his tweets are excessive and sometimes dangerous. Yeah, he spreads rumors of crazy conspiracies. Sometimes he says things that are openly hostile to Muslims or Blacks, and that isn't right. Yes, the business about grabbing pussies is embarrassing, and presidents should set a better example, and no, men should not just reach out and touch women and they shouldn't brag about it, either. Whatever happened with Stormy Daniels doesn't look good, no, but that is really between himself and Melania, and the fact that he paid the woman--two women--hush money doesn't mean he did what they said. Sometimes Trump acts like a schoolyard bully, and the name-calling is beneath the dignity of a president, but it isn't impeachable. Yeah, pardoning people who were found by courts to be guilty of perjuring themselves to protect the president looks bad. Yeah, he urged people to come to DC and he got them wound up and told them to be strong and brave and convince Congress or Pence or someone to overthrow an election, but he didn't exactly meet the elements of "inciting" violence. They were probably going to be violent on their own, not because of Trump, and he didn't exactly tell them to break glass and stab people with flag poles, they did that on their own.

Team Trump

It goes on. Republicans tolerate all that. 

High profile Christian leaders and nearly every Republican officeholder either actively and publicly supports Trump, or is silent about Trump's behavior. Trump's bad character doesn't matter.  Character does not matter. Trump being a bad example doesn't really matter. He fights with liberals and he appoints very conservative judges; that's enough.

Republicans are OK with politicians who openly and publicly display bad character.  No School Board would tolerate a School Superintendent like Trump. No corporate board would tolerate Trump as CEO. But he is good enough for Republicans.