Though conservatives still debate what use or function the Never Trump movement has had since President Trump’s election, there’s no question that it’s a mere fraction of the force it had been in 2016. For plenty of conservatives, the entire conceit rested on the immediate sunk cost of electing Trump to the presidency in the first place, thus rendering opposition to him functionally useless once he actually occupied the Oval Office. In this way, a significant number of Republicans who abhor Trump, both on a personal and political level, have been forced either to move away from the political space or to spend the better part of the past two years defending him from a fairly insane conspiracy theory whose drumbeat is a 24-hour affair.

Two and a half years ago, despondent Democrats could have decided either to take advantage of Trump’s ideological malleability, courting his big government proclivities to pass spending packages or entitlement expansions. Alternatively, they could have spent every waking minute allowing him to revel in his own faux pas and establishing themselves as the sane, stable, grown-up opposition to the Trump sideshow. All the while, they could have been grooming their own presidential replacements, focusing their efforts solely on garnering positive press for their top 2020 contenders.