Trump exited, the country rejected the trumpiest of the candidates, almost all of whom (Lake aside, but she’ll probably be a gift to the dems in the AZ senate contest this year) conceded their losses, immediately. In house races, some of the trumpiest primary candidates failed. Up here in ny, we had all kinds of Trumpies vying for the gubernatorial nomination, but Lee Zeldin was probably the least Trumpie of the bunch. Moms for Liberty has been pretty much unsuccessful in dominating school boards.

I’m not saying I’d vote for Haley, but I’d be open to it. I’d have to get comfortable with her abortion stance, and that she isn’t what you describe, and I’d put the odds at under 50/50 that I’d get comfortable with all that.

I think the repub party is permanently changed. I think it is the populist, nationalist, nativist option now. Right wing more than conservative. Doesn’t tend to appeal to me. I am less convinced than you that it will always look like a cult servicing a demagogue, bowing to his every whim. He is uniquely gifted in making his personal grievances his cults’. I think it’s unlikely someone else will be as successful. Less devotion to a demagogue’s grievances should eventually mean less devotion to his interests at any cost, including the Constitution.

All this is not written in stone. The future is never fully baked. A reduction in the grip of Trumpism would have been signaled by a better showing by Haley (as opposed to DeSantis, which would have been more Trump-like).