And what of the notion that Cawthorn’s loss represents a step away from Trumpism and a step toward the restoration of a kind of more sane, more sober Republican party—as if his defeat is nature healing itself?

Even if Trump did back the loser in this race, it is still very much his party. Cawthorn’s volatile combination of callowness and callousness, not to mention his unpredictability, so alienated him from voters that even Trump couldn’t redeem him in their eyes. That doesn’t mean, though, that Cawthorn’s loss is the come-to-Jesus moment that the party desperately needs. Don’t get your hopes up.

As for soon-to-be-former Rep. Cawthorn, odds are that some conservative outlet—on cable? talk radio? the internet?—will quickly offer him a job, hoping to take advantage of his notoriety and his half a million Twitter followers. But please forgive me for hoping that the young man will take some time off from politics, and maybe even consider therapy.