The top Republican in the Missouri Senate last week condemned a growing authoritarian trend within the party, saying “so-called conservatives” are trying to use the power of government “to force people to do things that they want them to do.” “It’s an alarming thing for me — just a trend at this point,” Senate President Pro Tem Caleb Rowden, a Columbia Republican, told reporters. Rowden said he wasn’t talking about anybody specifically, but his remarks come as a hard-right faction of state legislators have rebranded as the Missouri Freedom Caucus and are threatening to fight GOP leaders over a…