The Florida senator will have a chance to put together the anti-Trump coalition. Many powerful people in the conservative movement and the Republican establishment desperately want him as their nominee. That counts for a lot.

But don’t get too excited for Rubio. It may still be too late. The race moves to Nevada next. It is hard to see Rubio or Cruz being so discouraged by results there that one of them drops out and endorses the other in an attempt to stop Trump. They will, as they have, focus all of their fire on each other, continuing the pattern where Trump never stays in a prolonged one-on-one fight. Rubio wins among people who have college diplomas and Republicans who have high-paying jobs. He is acceptable to most of the party, but he is only truly beloved by the political class itself.

Trump’s victories in New Hampshire and South Carolina make the Trump phenomenon more real and plausible to voters who find some part of themselves attracted to him. He is creating havoc and inflicting pain on the Republican Party, along with the entire class of media and political professionals. Trump’s campaign has shattered the illusion of governed order within the Republican Party, and many voters now find themselves enjoying the freedom to loot unpunished. A kind of dark fatalism gathers itself in the Republican Party. And, anecdotally, this fatalism is shared by many Republican elites themselves, who privately tell columnists like yours truly that they richly deserve the fate Trump is delivering to them.