It’s been said that societies elect the governments they deserve. That’s certainly the case with the American Right and Donald Trump. In spite of this, many Republicans have been beside themselves about the man for the past 12 months. According to his critics, the former reality-TV star is a gross departure from the conservative tradition. They couldn’t be more wrong.

A group of Trump disparagers were so discontented with their nominee that they vowed to found their own rump organization, the Renegade Party, in hopes of finding a Republican politician willing to commit seppuku on their behalf. Never mind that the Libertarian Party was in the process of nominating two former governors for their ticket.

In fairness to the Renegades, perhaps they were deterred by the fact that the Libertarians also featured James Weeks, a candidate for the party chair’s office who stripped down to his underwear before announcing he was no longer interested in the position. But according to Trump’s Republican critics, he is even more ridiculous than Weeks. He is, so they say, a constant flip-flopper who is psychologically authoritarian, ignorant of policy, inveterately dishonest, and insufficiently adherent to conservative orthodoxy.

Aside from the fallacious armchair psychoanalysis, it’s hard to argue with any of these characterizations. Nonetheless, Donald Trump is very much within the spirit of the conservative movement—if not its letter. The idea that this might be true is infuriating to many of his detractors. But the leadership of #NeverTrump has been doing anything but contemplating just how that might be the case.