At what point does the GOP look around the empty room and wonder, is it us?

The shift has left GOP lawmakers despondent and, well, rage-y. Rep. Jason Smith of Missouri bitterly complained that the Chamber “has forgotten Main Street America,” according to Politico. The outlet writes, “Smith’s frustration with the Chamber is shared by many Republicans who say the group is now unrecognizable to them.”

Wow. Have Republicans stopped to look in the mirror lately? Or put another way, any chance it’s the GOP that’s become a grotesque caricature of its former self? Not that its former self was much of a looker, but it was apparently good enough for the Chamber and now it’s clearly not.

Hey, everyone has a breaking point. The Chamber’s appeared to be 2020, when it endorsed the reelection of almost two dozen House Democrats. At the time, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy told Fox News the group could effectively take its endorsements and shove it “because they have sold out.”

In addition, then-Majority Leader Mitch McConnell simply dismissed the Chamber’s relevance because it had clearly lost its way.

“Honestly at this point, I think they’re so confused about what they’re about that they probably don’t make much difference,” McConnell told Politico in September.

McConnell ally and former chief of staff Josh Holmes piled on, saying the Chamber had become “totally unmoored” from its mission of promoting businesses.

Totally unmoored? It’s not like the Chamber’s shift exists in isolation. The GOP’s reputation is suffering among Americans, donors are shunning it, and tens of thousands of voters are abandoning it. So at what point does the GOP look around the empty room and wonder, is it us?