The circular firing squad is heating up:

State Republicans jump ship: This isn’t our party anymore

Thirteen Maine Republicans and one Iowan Republican left their party this week as the party schism broadens nationwide.

The defecting Republicans represent two polar ends within the GOP: The Maine group fled the party because they feel the GOP isn’t conservative enough, while the Iowan Republican left saying the party had become too conservative and “hateful.”

[…]

The Iowan Republican, co-chairman of the Polk County Republican Party, resigned and became an independent, citing “hateful” rhetoric and a “war on science and common sense.”

Polk County’s Chad Brown, 34, wrote that “this level of dysfunction is not going to be fixed any time soon,” in a letter printed by the Des Moines Register.

Maine Republicans cited more policy moves for their departure, including Gov. Paul LePage’s veto of a bill that would have allowed unpasteurized milk to be sold. “We want our God-given rights to buy, sell and consume what we want protected by the law,” they wrote.

[…]

So, one guy discovers that he doesn’t want to be know-nothing, while 13 decide that God has given them the right to consume Mycobacterium tuberculosis and that the Republican party ought to recognize this.