When President Donald Trump roared to victory in 2024, conservatives told themselves a number of just-so stories. Biden-era profligacy had driven the Democratic Party into its grave, leaving MAGA Republicans to plot America’s future alone. Former President Barack Obama’s “coalition of the ascendant” had permanently splintered. Most importantly, wokeness was spent as a cultural force. From now on, surely no one would insist that men could become women, that racism lurked behind every rock and tree, or that right-leaning speech ought to be muzzled.