This is probably about right. Opposition to Trump has always come in two broad forms: 1) Trump is a sadistic/racist/misogynistic threat to America 2) Trump is running the Empire badly https://twitter.com/athertonkd/status/1295542650909667329

The Bill Kristols of the world are just mad the Empire is being mismanaged, with *zero* deeper thought, reflection, and regret going on about what they did to get us here. They will, in fact, go right back to insisting it’s the best way forward when (if) Trump is defeated.

(to be clear, a lot of the opposition to Trump from the center/establishment wing of the Democratic Party runs very heavy on “the Empire is being badly run” too)

But at this point, in my opinion, those are battles for another day. Trump has to go. He has to be repudiated. He has to he defeated and removed from office. There is no path forward if he wins in November. The election is about expelling Trump. That’s it.

But as we move forward together again him, ask yourself: (a) did forces conjure Trump or (b) did Trump conjure forces? I side very much with interpretation (a). And there is a HUGE blunderous disaster awaiting anyone who thinks what comes with Trump goes with Trump.

This is a mistake even a lot of well meaning appalled-by-Trump liberals make. They think he’s a mutant, a Mule, and if we get rid of him everything can “go back to normal.” But MAGA didn’t come out of nowhere, and it won’t disappear if (when) he loses.

Never forget that a big reason the GOP field didn’t attack Trump harder in the 2016 primary is the assumption that he would eventually implode, and no one wanted to pre-alienate his voters—who Cruz, Rubio, Jeb et al would surely be fighting over once Trump was out of the picture.

Nor will right wing media likely do anything during a Biden presidency but revert to their far more comfortable crouch as the recklessly hyperbolic opposition. Like a sorcerers apprentice who has learned nothing, they will go right back to asking the brooms to clean up for them.

So 2 ways forward for an anti-Trump center-right that wants to “take back control” from the MAGAs: 1) Try to re-contain the MAGA voters and deploy them against the Democrats like before, (sorcerers apprentice redux) or b) forge a new party with right wing of the Democratic Party

Of these two paths I would say there is a 97% chance they go for sorcerers apprentice redux. Because worst case scenario it’s fascism which, for them, seems to get a big shrug compared to the menace of slightly higher taxes and universal healthcare.

The test will come if (when) Biden is elected. How quickly do they go right back to excoriating opposition. Or do they use their money, voices, clout etc to say: hey let’s support President Biden because we all voted for him instead of Trump remember? And for good reasons!

If you are shaking you head and laughing at this scenario...me too basically. The fact that it feels so insanely far fetched doesn’t give me much hope they have *actually* learned any lesson they needed to have learned.

TL/DR: we must all come together today to expel Trump, so that tomorrow we can go back to being right back where we started.