David Pakman

And the only place that's left, if you disagree on details, but respect the rule of law and the Constitution, there's only one place left for that.

And it's the Democratic Party.

Then you've got, you know, someone like a Mitt Romney, former Republican presidential nominee, who at this point he's barely even treated as a real Republican in MAGA circles.

So that is a party that has changed.

They've completely redefined what it means to be a Republican.

Now, why would Mike Pence say otherwise?

Why would Pence be incentivized to say, oh, the Republican Party is still basically there?

He has a stake in that being true because Pence represents the old version of the Republican Party.

If the old version of the Republican Party is still what dominates underneath Trump, then Pence might have a role in that party.

If the party today is not the traditional conservative policy focus, whatever, then Pence is dead as a politician.

His entire political future depends on a Republican Party that does want to go back to that.

that there's going to be some reset after Donald Trump, that voters will go, OK, you know, that was a phase.

It lasted what will ultimately be 12 and a half years.

Let's go back to something like the Pence style republicanism.

I don't see any evidence that that's going to happen.

And if anything, the evidence points in the other direction.

The base of the party wants the Trump style.

They reward it.

They have come to expect it.

In primaries, it's a lot of those people that are being elevated and the people who move away from Trump tend to struggle.