AS AMERICA AND the rest of the world look on – often astonished and dismayed at the whirlwind of impactful events and controversial utterances – at Trump 2.0, Republican operatives are already focusing their attention on the twilight of his presidency and the future trajectory of their party. Getting beyond the cult of personality around President Trump will be no mean accomplishment.

Simultaneously, the opposition have their own quandaries. They have developed a habit of doing politics poorly. And although the November midterms should produce good results for them, the Democrats are increasingly divided.

Let’s start by considering the GOP’s path.

The sudden death of Senator Lindsey Graham and apparently grave illness of his colleague, Senator Mitch McConnell, has made some recall that each was a traditional conservative, at least prior to Trump’s bursting on the scene about a decade ago.

Both were staunch internationalists, unafraid to deploy the United States armed forces globally in pursuit of myriad aims, generally open to immigrants seeking to realise their American dreams, in favour of small government and low taxes, socially conservative, imbued with a strong sense of patriotism, and possessed of a reasonably sunny disposition.

When, critics might say if, President Trump leaves the stage, it has been posited that Republicans might pivot back to that dogma. That seems highly unlikely and would be politically foolish in my view. First, the vast majority of the faithful are no longer in that space. Second, eight years of George W Bush and his failed, military industrial complex-sponsored interventions in the Middle East doomed those, such as John McCain in 2008 and Mitt Romney in 2012, who were on broadly the same page as their........

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