As the nation prepares to inaugurate President-elect Joe Biden on Wednesday, many in the Republican Party feel battle-tested and tired. The GOP is split into at least two factions: “Make America Great Again” extremists who feel defeated after a long battle and Never Trumpers who feel they may have actually lost the war altogether. Both may think it’s never been worse for the conservative movement. I disagree. I was saddened to see supporters of President Trump wave the U.S. flag as they breached the Capitol building on Jan. 6. However, the riot and the end of the Trump presidency must be a watershed moment to pave the way for a new conservatism to emerge.

The new GOP must do several things. First, they must condemn what happened on Jan. 6 and denounce the people who promised the election results could be modified through violence — or even through the debate that eventually took place afterward. For the few weeks leading up to the riot, Republican members of Congress and others called on vulnerable, angry Trump supporters to wave the proverbial flag of protest to change election results. While calls for violence weren’t explicit, it shouldn’t be shocking that fringe extremists were motivated to action by the heightened rhetoric of a “stolen election” and its consequences for the country.