Roy Moore's defeat shows partisanship has its limits

A recent PRRI poll put the number of Never Trump Republicans (those who didn’t support the president last time and don’t plan to the next time) at 18 percent of the party. What if those people followed their consciences next time instead of political expediency? They couldn’t run a candidate who could beat Trump. But they could run a candidate who torpedoes him. Or they could just sit out the election. Or, God forbid, actually vote for the Democrat.

Trumpism — and its rabid half-brother Bannonism — needs to lose in 2018 and 2020. But not just lose. It needs to lose yuge. Decisively. Unambiguously. It needs to be repudiated in no uncertain terms. If a staunchly pro-choice Democrat can (narrowly) win a Senate seat in Alabama, then it’s possible. The spell can be broken. There are limits to what people will embrace and accept. It can be done. A Republican can recognize that sometimes the sludge his own party coughs up and places on the ballot is worse than the poor schmuck running against him.