This week in the “Is President Trump good for conservatism?” debate, the defense presents Brett Kavanaugh’s nomination to the Supreme Court as Exhibit A while the prosecution rests its case with Russian President Vladimir Putin being the “easiest” to deal with in a list that includes NATO and the United Kingdom.

But the better question might be whether Trump is good for Trumpism. Conservatism existed before Trump and is bound to continue in some form afterward. So too will the Republican Party, even if Trump causes losses at the ballot box this year and in 2020. It is barely remembered that President George W. Bush at his nadir was less popular than Trump is now. And if the Republicans survived the Great Depression while the Democrats survived the Civil War, major parties are awfully hard to kill.