Just gonna offer one thought on this, and then I really hope to move on to better subjects for the foreseeable future.

I've seen a lot of snarky tweets about how Never Trump folks aren't going to know what to do with themselves now. I think that's wrong on a number of fronts.

Usually this is accompanied by some version of, "Aren't you happy that a pro-choice candidate is in office now? Look what you did."

That's a totally misguided sentiment though. Part of the NeverTrump objection was always that he would *hurt* the pro-life cause by marrying it...

to his personal and ideological vices. If you're sad that the pro-life candidate lost, do some soul searching about why such a divisive and unqualified candidate was nominated and enabled for five years, making his re-election very unlikely. Realize as well...

that if conservatism doesn't break that connection and find a way to coalesce around a positive, constructive, and inspiring vision, we'll be in this place for a long time and the coalition around us will steadily shrink.

Lastly, I think NeverTrumpers are due for a sense of relief, even if they're not happy that the Democrats are in charge. It's not excitement about the agenda, it's the hope for a break from the last five years.

For many of us, this has been a costly time – personally, relationally, financially, institutionally, and so on. We paid a price for rejecting the fusion of conservatism with Trumpism, and all the warning flags thrown – about authoritarianism and long term failure – were right.

January sixth was the punctuation mark. No doubt, it will quickly be memory-holed by people who want to move on and reassemble their coalition. But as the Trump era ends, it's the hope of many that the worst aspects of it (and fruit of it) will perish with it.