Keyes was taken down by the same forces that took down Herman Cain, Ted Stevens, Tom DeLay, Roy Moore, and a host of others. A thoroughly corrupt media.
Sadly, it was not just a thoroughly corrupt media, although they were the main tool.
I think, if you look back, you will find that the support of those allegedly 'conservative' folks in the mainstream GOP was conspicuously absent, and often completely withdrawn.
Instead of closing ranks to defend, the GOP abandoned and sometimes even joined in the attack.
Roy Moore's case was an eye opener for me, because that was when I realized the GOP in DC was not interested in anyone who might place principle ahead of all else and actually represent Americans and the Constitution first. No one who won't grease palms in backroom deals need apply, and if somehow, they do get elected, they will be marginalized, primaried, or 'scandaled' out as soon as possible.
Keyes, whether you agreed with his stance on reparations or not (I didn't) was/is a man of principle, who stands on the Constitution, and that could not be tolerated by the GOPe because he or others of his ilk might throw a monkey wrench into the Country Club 'smoky back room' aspect of the Swamp regardless of who is involved, and I'm reasonably sure the positions of power players are maintained by deals behind the scenes that involve sold souls and damning evidence all around.
That's a fragile ecology, because of the equilibrium between Left and Right, GOP and Dems, and maintaining the appearance of juxtaposed forces, but in reality it is more of a delicate symbiosis of calculated maneuvers which counterbalance to keep the whole mess in the zone where all who play, profit. Anything/anyone which/who threatens that balance and might bring down or expose (even just by example) that delicate structure will be stopped, and persons of principle are the greatest threat.
You can't control someone you can't buy off, one way or another.
There are lots of folks in DC who get their "attaboys" for doing the right thing, regardless of motive, but when it comes to running for POTUS, all those "attaboys" evaporate with just one serious "awshit". Pence is a prime example. His rush to certify the 2020 count indicated that when the chips are down, he cannot be counted on. But when the time comes, the Party wants people they can control or at least make deals with. The GOP support for Trump was predicated on the belief that he could be negotiated with, where Cruz would be more likely to stand on principle when it would be inconvenient. When the GOP found that Trump cared more what the people who voted for him thought of him than what the Party did, that shifted, but by then Trump was in office.
