Related Stories:

Peter King: 'I Can Never Forgive Ted Cruz'

Former Sen. Olympia Snowe of Maine says the Republican Party has bowed to extreme elements, making it unrecognizable from the GOP she joined years ago."Obviously it’s moved to the extremes. I wouldn’t characterize everybody within the tea party movement, but certainly there are broad elements within the party now that are driving their own agenda for their own advantage, irrespective of what implications it has for the Republican Party," Snowe told Ashleigh Banfield on CNN Newsroom "And certainly, this isn’t a party that I recognize and the party that I joined when I first enrolled, and that’s regrettable."Snowe added that the chaos "is not helping the Republican Party currently, that’s for sure, and I think that clearly there’s going to have to be a rebuilding within the party, and to recognize that this imperils the future of the party as it stands today."She urged Americans to get involved right now in citizen activism to show their discontent with the situation."Weigh in with your lawmakers, use social media, use your online technology and communicate how disgusted and fed up you are with this process and this shutdown, and tell them to go back to work and to solve the problems for this country,” Snowe said.Snowe, named one of America's Best Senators by Time Magazine, in 2006, is thought of as one of the leading moderates with the Republican Party. She retired from the Senate last year.