Ross Douthat predicts there will never be a reckoning for either Trump or his enablers. The former will just fade away, and the latter will fall into line behind DeSantis or some other nominee. Is he right?
As with most things, it depends–in this case, on Trump and his followers. If Trump benefits from a large field and wins the nomination, all bets are off. If he loses the primaries but claims that the establishment rigged the process against him, his most fanatical supporters are likely to follow him out of the GOP, with disastrous results in the general election. Electoral defeat as a result of the actions of the “burn it down” crowd would represent a reckoning of a different sort.