If the president could pivot to a more “presidential” persona, he would have done it already. When British prime minister Margaret Thatcher was confronted with calls to turn away from her market-liberating reforms, she famously declared, “The lady’s not for turning.” Trump, while a very different kind of leader, could give a speech declaring, “The man is not for pivoting.”

So the only variable in the binary presidential election lies on the left side of the ledger. If the Democrats present a face that is scarier than the reality show of the previous four years, many Americans could vote against the Democrats rather than for the Republicans.

That process is already starting. Erick Erickson, a prominent “Never Trump” conservative in 2016 and a Trump critic since then, announced on Monday that he will be voting for Trump in 2020.

Democrats would be wise to pay attention. Erickson hasn’t suddenly fallen in love with Trump; he’s grown decisively horrified by the Democrats. And I can’t blame him. Just last week, Democrats unveiled the Green New Deal, a wild-eyed fantasy of an agenda that would cost trillions, destroy whole industries, and serve as a Trojan horse for socialism.