Consider the pundits.

Ever since the modern-day conservative movement came together in support of Ronald Reagan’s candidacy in 1980, its leading intellectuals have tended to fall in line behind the Republican Party’s nominee for president. Sure, they would jostle before and during the primaries, with each pundit throwing his writing and thinking behind whichever candidate came closest to exemplifying the precise mix of personality traits and policy proposals he favored. But by the time the nomination was secured, party loyalty would kick in and the preferences of Republican voters and party bigwigs would get the final say. And that was okay, as far as the pundits were concerned, because no matter which candidate ended up at the top of the ticket, he was bound to be better than whatever Big Government liberal the Democrats had chosen to run against him.

But that won’t necessarily be true if Trump ends up as the nominee next summer. So what would the conservative pundits do?

Most, I think, would choose to go into exile, withdrawing their support, at least temporarily, from the Republican Party. And that would be an event every bit as significant as the split in the Republican electorate that a Trump candidacy would reflect and intensify. It would mark nothing less than the crack-up of the conservative movement as it’s been constituted for the past 35 years.