One of the many ongoing tremors from the political and cultural earthquake that was the highly contentious Brett Kavanaugh confirmation process, is the impact on the so-called “Never Trump” movement within what is left of principled conservatism. Earlier this week, my friend and fellow anti-Trump conservative Matt Lewis declared in The Daily Beast that Trump salvaging the Kavanaugh nomination, when probably any other president would have folded, has officially “killed” Never Trumpism.

This sparked some interesting conversation on Twitter (a platform I have come to loathe thanks to the Kavanaugh nightmare) among various remnants of the splintered, demoralized, and beleaguered remaining Never Trumpers. Some of which indicated that there may be some confusion about what being a Never Trump conservative even means, or why the Kavanaugh confirmation matters to those morally opposed to Trumpism.

There is no question that Trump pulling Kavanaugh out of the fire in a manner which only he — with the help of Mitch McConnell — could have done, has bought him a lot of capital with Republicans who have held various levels of loathing towards him ever since he announced his presidential bid in the summer of 2015. Heck, even I have noticed a perceptible thawing of the packed ice around my heart when it comes to my feelings about this president.