What now, fellow Never Trumpers? How long is “never”? I see three paths ahead.

On the one hand, some people will leave the GOP in disgust. They looked at Donald Trump and his campaign and his supporters and saw a man unqualified and morally unfit for the job running a campaign they wanted no part of, and the prospect of a disastrous presidency ahead, and awaken today saying “not my circus, not my monkeys.” I’ll be sad to see them go, as many are old friends and stalwart conservatives. I hope the party and the conservative movement can bring them home again some day, and deserve to.

At the opposite end are those who opposed Trump mainly because they thought Trump and Trumpism were an embarrassing and politically suicidal dead end. Some of these folks are looking at the election returns and re-evaluating the first GOP wins in the Rust Belt states of Michigan and Pennsylvania since 1988, and Wisconsin since 1984. I think that’s short-sighted, as stormier seas are ahead. Even aside from the nature of the man, Trump’s political coalition may be the most unstable since the waning days of the New Deal.