But politics — especially democratic politics — doesn’t really work like a screenplay. I once imagined it might. I had viewed the presidency of George W. Bush as an unmitigated disaster for conservatism and the country. I had hoped for some grand repudiation. But it never came. And it never will. Candidates in future elections sometimes took positions the very opposite of George W. Bush’s — but they did not make their campaign about George W. Bush, or about repudiating him. They could have talked up what a danger it was to democracy to “stovepipe” intelligence. Or that his embrace of a certain ideologically crusading politics abroad would lead to instability at home. But, understandably, they did not want to demoralize and divide the party they were running in. They wanted their campaigns to be their own. Nixon too had a presidency end in scandal and ignominy. But future Republican presidents did not run against him, and they were supporters of Nixon during his presidency. Each of them was different from Nixon — ideologically and temperamentally. Cheney could be right that Donald Trump himself may lead the Republican Party into another avoidable disaster and disgrace. She may be proved right that Republicans will regret not doing more to diminish his say over the party in the future. But the party was as capable of steering and misdirecting Trump as he was of steering and misdirecting it.