A thought is that from 'their' perspective the potential loss of power and status on the tip top of things is to them existential. Consider a certain Senator be

A thought is that from 'their' perspective the potential loss of power and status on the tip top of things is to them existential. Consider a certain Senator being wheeled into the Senate to vote. Why even subject ones self to that. Because to step down is annihilation. There was another Senator in 2023 being wheeled around the same way. So all of this is performative asserting power in order to punish anyone seen as a threat to the current system.