The GOP, after years of gradual but strong growth, now dominates all levels and branches of US government. And it now stands for nationalism (the polar opposite of patriotism), Peronism, and at minimum the quiet toleration of racism, misogyny, anti-Semitism and shameless corruption.

Meanwhile, the Democrats will almost certainly purge themselves of the filthy Clinton machine, and have the opportunity to rethink the wisdom of identity politics rather than “doubling down” on it (as Jonathan Haidt is warning them not to do). One of the lessons of Trump is that if identity politics is sauce for the goose, it’s sauce for the gander. Some of us have been jumping up and down trying to warn our friends on the left about this for generations. Perhaps now they’ll listen.

And somewhere in America, an aspiring fascist dictator who is not buffoonishly un-self-controlled or totally lacking in political talent is watching carefully and taking copious notes.

As for me? All the confident predictions I made about what Trump would do in office will now, against all my expectations, actually be tested. So all the credibility I built up by standing against Trump may well be squandered.

Conservatism, I fear, may be dead. There will be no living in the same house with Trump and his slaves now, not without accepting the collar. And if even a sizeable minority of “conservatives” accept the collar, conservatism will become a word without meaning.

But God is not dead, and there is still much of the raw material of goodness in this country.

I’m grateful to Evan McMullin for trying, and for giving the rest of us the opportunity to do the same. Well done.