The good news for Republicans is that Moore’s win will likely draw more and stronger candidates from the sidelines. Despite all the talk of Trump’s “cult of personality,” the 2016 election was about ideas—and ideas, as Richard Weaver famously observed, have consequences.

It is not lost on the public that congressional Republicans have failed to pass a single piece of significant legislation. The slow-motion debacle that has been the “fight” to repeal Obamacare is just the most prominent example of the leadership’s inability to legislate which is, after all, their one and only job.

The old Republican guard can’t persuade people. Why would anyone rally to McConnell? He doesn’t get anything done. Power not used is power lost. So what is the point of supporting a Majority Leader that doesn’t have the stomach to legislate?