“For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?”

Though one imagines that many of President Donald Trump’s supporters in the evangelical Christian community are intimately familiar with that famous biblical quotation, it’s quite likely that a fair number of GOP members of Congress haven’t thought of it all that much. A word to the wise: Even those generally inclined toward secularity might do well to familiarize themselves with that New Testament verse, from the Gospel of Mark, as the president continues to melt down.

Back when then-candidate Trump took over the once-Grand Old Party in 2016, vanquishing a field of actual Republicans who frequently espoused beliefs that had long been a part of party orthodoxy, many wondered what what happen to most dyed-in-the-wool conservatives. The surprising answer: they largely just disappeared.

Except for Sen. Mitt Romney, of Utah, that is. And sometimes, at least a bit, Sen. Ben Sass, of Nebraska, and perhaps Sen. Susan Collins, of Maine, on occasion.

With others either remaining silent or cheering on the president no matter what, Romney has once again stepped forward to say that enough is enough, and that too much is too much.

Though he tried to blunt Trump's ascent during the 2016 GOP presidential nominating contest, Romney, who was the Republican Party's standard-bearer four years prior, ultimately lost that fight. But he went on to get himself elected to the U.S. Senate in 2018.

Now, he's standing tall by having the courage of his convictions and bucking the reality TV star who is currently playing the role of president.

Those who care about the overall health of the nation, and who’d also like to see a viable Republican Party survive the Trump era, should be cheering Romney and hoping that many others join his still-lonely cause. If Trump crashes and burns, losing in a landslide in next year’s election, should he survive even that long, one can imagine that he’d take a good many Republicans in Congress down with him.

When the postmortems are written, one of the first questions will be plain: Who had the courage of his convictions and stood up for what was right? The obvious corollary: And who at the same time sold his soul and contentedly looked the other way?